Chances are good that you’ve never heard of Bill Keenan.

Over four seasons at Harvard, Keenan dressed for six games, none as a junior or senior. He was not drafted. He never played an NHL game. Keenan last played for Kramfors, which only hard-core puckheads can identify as a mid-tier European club instead of a Swedish flatbread.

That is precisely the point.

It would be one thing had Keenan made it as an NHLer. That he did not makes “Odd Man Rush,’’ Keenan’s memoir published in January, a unique item on the bookshelf. Keenan puts a name, face, and voice to the majority — the grinders who, despite their singular passion for the sport, do not advance to its highest level.

Keenan was an energy forward. With good health, better luck, and more skill, he might have made it to the NHL as a bottom-six banger. But a back injury stalled his development in college. After graduation, he couldn’t land a roster spot in North America and began life as a hockey mercenary overseas.

By the time he was 26, Keenan was no longer the young player in the room. Reality set in, and Keenan retired in 2012, falling short of the destination he believed was his birthright. Keenan has plenty of company.

The NHL is holding its signature event. Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center and San Jose’s SAP Center have been crammed with future Hall of Famers such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Joe Thornton. The Stanley Cup Final is Charles Darwin’s theory come to life. Only the fittest survive four rounds of brutality to lift 35 pounds of heavy metal above their heads.

Yet observers shake their heads at how leaky Matt Murray was in Pittsburgh’s Game 5 loss. Keenan’s book reminds us that players like Murray are the exception. Murray and his counterparts boast talent that big-league dreamers would kill to have.

“You get to appreciate how good they are,’’ Keenan said of watching the playoffs. “When some stuff happens, it’s like, ‘How did he catch that pass, go through the legs, and kick it up to his skate?’ If that were me, I’d have broken my skate blade and the puck would have ended up in the corner. Instead, this guy’s on a breakaway.’’

In some ways, Keenan is a peer to today’s moneymakers. Jonathan Quick was a schoolboy teammate. As a 13-year-old playing in a tournament in Calgary, Keenan’s Connecticut travel team lost to a powerhouse from Nova Scotia and a 12-year-old named Sidney Crosby. During summer workouts in El Segundo, Calif., following his freshman season, Keenan became Malkin’s preferred feeder upon the center’s Stateside arrival, even taking one of the Russian’s slappers in the mouth when it hammered off the crossbar.

But Keenan, now 30, is a recent Columbia Business School graduate. He will begin working for Deutsche Bank in investment banking in July. Keenan’s story of starting a career in suit and tie is far more common than the fortunate few who pull on NHL jerseys.

Even his second career, however, is one of good fortune.

One of Keenan’s first teammates in Belgium with the Turnhout White Caps is Chris, a Vancouver native who played junior for Prince George. When he lands in Germany with Neuwied, Keenan becomes friendly with Dennis, a German defenseman who supplements his game checks by working at a local electronics store that sponsors the team. With Lindlovens in Sweden, Keenan shares the dressing room with two Sergejs, who are from Latvia.

They are hockey lifers who have neither the talent to advance to a high-tier European team nor the Ivy League degree that Keenan earned in 2009. They are locked within the game they love but not as fortunate as Keenan to have a key to leave it.

“I’m lucky to have resources and people around me who give a [expletive] about me,’’ Keenan said. “Not everybody has that. There are plenty of people I’ve crossed paths with that don’t. In some ways, it gives them a benefit. Their backs are against the wall. They have that extra little drive. There’s no alternative. It has to work. There were people I knew who said, ‘This is my ticket out of whatever hell hole I’m in.’ Hockey gets you out. I wanted to do this so badly. But part of me thought my life would begin when I stopped playing hockey.’’

The poignant perspective of a would-be NHLer contrasts to the manner in which Keenan describes hockey life. Regardless of its level of competition, a hockey dressing room is a perpetual witch’s brew of zoo, playground, therapist’s office, and gladiatorial coliseum, sharply scented with dip spit and accompanied by the profane soundtrack of Canadian accents both authentic and adopted. It is the refuge that Keenan, like all ex-players, misses the most about the sport: complaining about the coach (“Donuts’’ being the nickname given to Harvard’s Ted Donato), bragging about sexual conquests, and clanking beer bottles after a win.

You cannot take life seriously when you spend most of it among animals. The meat of the book is one-liners and chop-busting, which Keenan inflicts primarily on himself.

Keenan understands the culture and captures it well. To do the sport justice, half the book would be swears. The ratio comes close.

Keenan does not hold back on his slap shots, which is unusual given that one of hockey’s rules is that what goes on in the room stays in the room. Keenan is steely in his critique of coaches, teammates, and the game itself. When he tries out for Lindlovens in Sweden, Keenan’s coach gives him a tip on how to improve his stride. Keenan replies that it’s the first piece of constructive instruction he’s received since he was 12 years old. Systems, not development, are the game’s emphasis.

By the end of his career, Keenan acknowledged an NHL offer was not in his future. As goofy, illuminating, and enriching as his experience of chasing his dream was, Keenan did not hang up his skates with satisfaction. He loved hockey so much that, upon retirement, falling short of his goal made the invitation of attending a Rangers game one he promptly declined.

“I was angry for sure,’’ Keenan said of not making it. “There’s a Canadian guy I’ve met who played for the Rangers. Hockey was his ticket. He still misses it, but hockey was just a way to get the [heck] away from where he grew up. It was a means to an end. It was almost a burden for him. He used it to get out. He said, ‘I really like hockey, but I can’t say I loved it.’ To me, it’s like, ‘Holy [expletive].’ That’s a tough thing to hear.’’

Keenan isn’t angry anymore. He doesn’t miss getting run over. He likes smelling good. Keenan is on to his next adventure, even if it’s unlikely to be as colorful as his last one.

BUMPER CROP

First round could yield BU bounty

Ten years ago, the University of Minnesota set the draft bar high. In 2006, four players who had committed to Minnesota or were already Golden Gophers were picked in the first round: Erik Johnson (No. 1), Phil Kessel (No. 5), Kyle Okposo (No. 7), and David Fischer (No. 20). No other school has matched Minnesota’s achievement.

There’s a good chance that Boston University could tie the four-pick threshold in this month’s first round. If somebody really likes Chad Krys, the Terriers could break Minnesota’s record.

It’s likely that Charlie McAvoy (the No. 6-ranked North American skater, according to NHL Central Scouting), Clayton Keller (No. 9), Kieffer Bellows (No. 10), and Dante Fabbro (No. 18) could be four of the first 30 picks. Any of the four would interest the Bruins at No. 14.

McAvoy played his first season at BU in 2015-16, mostly alongside Bruins prospect Matt Grzelcyk. Bellows and Fabbro will be BU freshmen this fall. Keller, Bellows’s teammate at the National Team Development Program, is leaning toward BU, but will wait until after the draft to determine whether college or the OHL (the Windsor Spitfires own his major junior rights) will be in his future. Krys is ranked No. 53, which would make him a first-round reach, but he is an offensive defenseman, a commodity in high regard among NHL clubs.

That the Terriers landed such high-end talent reflects well on coach David Quinn, assistant coach Albie O’Connell, and former assistant Steve Greeley, who helped recruit the players before he left for the Rangers.

“It speaks to the quality of the program at BU, first and foremost,’’ Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said. “Quinny’s doing a fantastic job of bringing in those players. He must be sitting down at the dinner table with their moms and convincing them this is the right place.’’

If Keller chooses BU, the Patrick Kane-like forward will be the primary piece of a freshman class that promises to push the pace. It’s how Quinn wants his team to operate.

“He wants to play a fast-paced style,’’ Keller said. “We want to score a lot of goals and we want to stay out of the defensive zone as much as we can. I think that’s the style that fits me best, just being in the offensive zone, creating, and using all my skills.’’

ETC.

Shorter goalies face a tall task

Zachary Sawchenko is NHL Central Scouting’s sixth-ranked North American goalie for the 2016 draft. He went a respectable 28-16-6 with a 3.04 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in 51 appearances for Moose Jaw in 2015-16. Sawchenko was one of seven goalies invited to participate in the NHL Combine in Buffalo.

Despite his achievements, it will not be in Sawchenko’s best interests to return to Buffalo for the draft. He will have to wait a long time to hear his name called — if he’s even drafted.

The strike against Sawchenko is one he cannot control. He stands just 6 feet. In today’s goaltending world, that is hobbit-sized.

Last year, Ilya Samsonov was the first goalie drafted when he went 22d to Washington. The 19-year-old is 6-3, 203 pounds.

Samsonov is not the exception. Samsonov is two inches shorter than Daniel Vladar, the 6-5 goalie the Bruins drafted with the No. 75 pick. Of the 24 goalies selected last year, 22 were 6-2 or taller. Erik Kallgren, the shortest at 5-11, went No. 183 to Arizona.

Just five years ago, nobody cared that Tim Thomas stood just 5-11. Thomas’s quickness, hockey sense, athleticism, and competitiveness allowed him to challenge first shots and recover for the second. But today’s goaltending coaches instruct their charges to stay deep in the crease. Naturally, this favors taller goalies.

Of the 28 goalies who appeared in the playoffs, 6-foot Antti Raanta is the shortest. Matt Murray and Martin Jones are both 6-4. While size is becoming less of a priority among skaters, especially forwards, it is one of the more significant criteria in determining which goalies get NHL jobs. Contemporary goalies are athletic, well-coached, and protected by lightweight gear. A giant who might have been out of place 10 years ago is now at an advantage because of the improvements in the position.

So for Sawchenko, it was no surprise that every team he interviewed with asked him about his height. He was ready with an answer.

“If you’re 6-4 or 6-1 and you stop the puck, what does it matter? Obviously those 6-4 guys have an advantage,’’ Sawchenko said. “But if you stop the puck, it doesn’t matter.’’

Sawchenko cited Jonathan Quick as a goalie he likes to emulate. Quick is 6-1.

Steady improvement

Like most rookies, Sidney Crosby wasn’t good at faceoffs. In 2005-06, Crosby won only 45.5 percent of his draws. But he’s won more than he’s lost in eight of the 10 seasons that followed his freshman year. One of his newer go-to moves is backing up once the puck drops. Most centers lean into the draw to muscle out their opponents. But by stepping out of the circle just as the puck is released (or even before, thus the accusation of cheating by Logan Couture), Crosby can position his blade at a more advantageous angle than his opponent. Crosby’s hands are fast and strong enough to scrape the puck toward a teammate when he has the upper hand in timing. It’s a move that’s hard to counter, as his 51.6 percent winning percentage this postseason shows.

Oilers should be leery of Lucic

There’s buzz out of Edmonton that if Milan Lucic reaches unrestricted free agency, ex-Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli will make a bid for his former left wing. It would be a curious pursuit. Chiarelli liked Lucic when they were in Boston. But Chiarelli understands that Lucic’s job description and career mileage (647 regular-season games, plus 101 in the playoffs) put him at risk for an earlier decline than other forwards. Chiarelli would have to outbid former colleague Jim Benning and the Canucks, a natural fit for the East Vancouver native. Edmonton’s priority is defense, not left wing. If the Oilers are serious about Lucic, it might mean Chiarelli deploys Taylor Hall as trade bait. The Oilers already have Hall, Patrick Maroon, and Benoit Pouliot riding on the left side.

Schultz approaching RFA status

The Penguins are facing a decision on Justin Schultz, who will be restricted on July 1. Schultz is coming off a $3.9 million salary. Unless the Penguins can free up space by trading Marc-Andre Fleury, it will be hard for them to qualify Schultz at his $3.9 million number, considering his limited ice time in the playoffs. Schultz had been a regular healthy scratch. But he returned to the lineup after Trevor Daley broke his ankle against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals. Because of their cap crunch, the Penguins may be forced not to tender Schultz, which would set him free. The Penguins acquired Schultz from Edmonton for a 2016 third-rounder.

Loose pucks

One year later, it looks like good fortune that Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson fell to the Bruins at No. 45. He would have gone higher, but teams were wary when Forsbacka Karlsson acknowledged, during last year’s combine, the severity of a concussion that sidelined him for the USHL playoffs. The clever Swede scored 10 goals and 20 assists as a BU freshman. The plan is for him to play one more year at BU before turning pro . . . Goalie Jake Oettinger, who also will be a BU freshman this fall, is 17 years old and thus not eligible to be picked in 2016. Draft watchers have pegged the 6-4, 201-pound Oettinger to be among the standout goalies eligible for 2017 . . . The Wild made a good hire in Scott Stevens, who will oversee Bruce Boudreau’s defense. Stevens, hired on Tuesday, was one of the wickedest thumpers of his time. But as an assistant in New Jersey, Stevens emphasized positioning and stick skills over body slams. Minnesota’s young de­fensemen will thrive under Stevens, even if one of them gets traded off the Wild’s crowded blue line . . . Two years ago, a longtime scout told me that Jack Eichel reminded him of Gordie Howe. I had two thoughts: First, Eichel must be really good. Second, my scout friend is cuckoo. Condolen­ces to the Howe family.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.