BOSTON — The image is a lasting one for David Quinn. He recalls a somewhat disheveled and unusually conversant Phil Kessel making a surprising confession during the 2007 world hockey championships.

“I wish that I had spent another year in college,” Kessel told Quinn, then an assistant for the United States team and now the coach at Boston University.

Kessel, the Toronto Maple Leafs star, turned pro after his freshman year at Minnesota after being chosen fifth in the 2006 N.H.L. draft. The No. 3 pick in that draft, the Chicago Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews, returned for a second season at North Dakota. James van Riemsdyk, Kessel’s Toronto teammate, played two years at New Hampshire after being the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft.

Quinn hopes that Kessel, Toews and van Riemsdyk serve as lessons for one of the most heralded American prospects ever — the B.U. freshman forward Jack Eichel, who leads Division I in points and is widely expected to be no worse than the No. 2 over all pick in the 2015 N.H.L. draft. Quinn hopes Eichel reaches out to them when the inevitable decision arrives — whether to turn pro or return to college for another season.