Yeah, I'm disappointed but not terribly surprised. Looking at the other 3 players who did get to the "Hat Trick", I guess the one that makes me scratch my head a little (at least in comparison to Kelleher) is Aston-Reese. The other two guys played on winning teams, one of which is still in the mix at the Frozen Four. Vecchione led the nation in scoring, has been on the radar for his entire career, and played for a team that made the D-1 tourney. And while Northeastern did (narrowly) finish with a winning record, they bowed out of the season a day earlier than UNH did.
I thought Dan outlined a strong argument for Kelleher over ZAR in the NU thread a few weeks ago. But ZAR fared better at the HE awards banquet, so that may have given him a nudge with the Hobey folks less familiar with the two players. And although I don't think last year is supposed to be a consideration, Northeastern did some incredible things late in the season last year, so that may have given ZAR a head start on things this season. Throw in a letter on the front of his jersey, where Kelleher opted against, and maybe it's a lot of little things that all added up to give Aston-Reese the slight edge. Oh well.
FWIW I'm getting a feeling that Butcher wins it this year. I had the same feeling when Leopold won it in '02. Union didn't exactly finish the season on an up note, with two decisive losses in the postseason.
But, by end of the conference tourneys, TyK, ZAR, and Vecchione had the same number of points, with Vecchione's linemate Foo just 1 point behind (Foo just went pro after junior year). I realize that the Hobey is based on more than points, and I think that you are spot on that TyK not having the respect of his teammates to make him captain probably hurt his Hobey candidacy in the end. But, what if TyK had Pots on his line this past season, like Vecchione had Foo; 10 to 20 more points for TyK? Or, maybe Pots would have been a top Hobey candidate, too.
Anyway, I think that this thread needs a "BU-together"-type poster to liven things a bit; is there an "UNH-together" poster out there?