There are no National Hockey League teams that wear winged helmets. But it seems that everywhere you look in professional hockey’s top league these days, there is a touch of maize and blue complementing each team’s colors.In the 2009-2010 season, 23 former Michigan hockey players laced up for an NHL team at least once, making Michigan the most represented college in the league.”It’s almost like a guy on every team has spent time in Ann Arbor,” said Mike Knuble, who played at Michigan from 1991 to 1995 and is currently playing his 15th NHL season as an alternate captain on the Washington Capitals.When it comes to former players in the NHL, no other college team comes close really. The Wisconsin Badgers ranked second with 17 former players in the NHL last year.Consider Michigan’s ubiquity in a different context: if the NHL reorganized and started with a draft of every current player, a franchise could fill its entire roster with former Wolverines and not need any other players.Of course, the Michigan hockey program has been among college hockey’s elite for over two decades. But the question remains: why is Michigan producing so many more NHL players than even the other top college programs?The answer probably lies at the top, with head coach Red Berenson. A veteran coach who has been there and done that, Berenson knows what it takes to jump from the college game to the NHL and in fact blazed the trail as the first player to make that step in 1962, playing in his first NHL game the day after his final college game.“I think you come in and you see Red’s 17 years in the NHL and that speaks to a lot of kids,” Knuble said. “He knows what it takes to get there. He’s pretty honest with you at times, he’s probably pretty blunt at times about your situation, about what you’re actually getting accomplished and what you’re doing, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice.”Knuble is among the elder statesmen of former Michigan players in the NHL. One of the newest is Boston Bruins defenseman Steve Kampfer, who completed his Michigan career last year and has risen quickly to contribute significant minutes on the blue line each night.Although Knuble and Kampfer were separated at Michigan by more than a decade, they share similar views on the value of Berenson’s teachings in shaping them to be NHL players.”There’s a lot of little things that they always taught me,” Kampfer said. “Red saying that you’ve got to play big in big games. Or I can always hear (assistant coach) Billy Powers telling me, ‘Stop taking loops, tighten up your gap, you’re drifting.’ It’s those little things, where you hear them over and over and over again while you’re at Michigan and it’s something that sticks in your head.”Most of all, both players said, it was the high standard of excellence Berenson imparted that they carried with them into the NHL.Berenson agrees that the work ethic and balanced approach he instills are important values that contribute to success in the NHL.”I think that’s a big part of it, is the citizenship and the work ethic and the dedication and the sacrifice,” Berenson said. “You can’t come and just be a big party person and expect to stay on the ice and night after night be an effective player. They’ve got to learn to make good decisions. They’ve got to learn to make a serious commitment to their career and that starts here at Michigan.”More important to Berenson than success on the ice is a commitment to education and earning a Michigan degree. The coach holds two Michigan degrees, including a Masters in Business Administration earned during his NHL career.The emphasis on education comes with a bit of enticement. Berenson refuses to give a departing player his Michigan ring until he has completed his degree. Knuble says that incentive played a role in his determination to return to Ann Arbor and earn his degree.”That was a big thing, to get your ring,” Knuble said. “He would hold that ring hostage in his desk until you could come and get it, until you earned it.”Berenson says it is harder to convince players to complete their four years of college today than it was in the past.In recent years, some Michigan players have left for the NHL before they graduated. Some were pressured by NHL teams to join the pro ranks, even though it would mean playing in the minor leagues rather than the NHL.”I think there is so much emphasis on this pro hockey career and maybe the money and so on that they forget about the value of the education and then they realize when hockey is over that, ‘Jeez, I wish I would have finished school,'” Berenson said.Berenson cites Jack Johnson, a stalwart defenseman who left Michigan after his sophomore year to join the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings in 2007, as an example of a player who was ready to leave for the NHL, but has remained committed to obtaining his degree. Johnson has returned to Ann Arbor each summer since, taking classes to achieve that goal.Seeing Berenson’s success in developing NHL players and watching former Michigan stars such as Johnson, Kampfer and Knuble in the NHL impact current and future Wolverines.”Knowing that all of those guys are there [in the NHL], it’s obviously been working, so we just try to follow coach’s lead,” senior captain Carl Hagelin said.Each August, Hagelin and his teammates have the chance to connect with the Wolverines that preceded them, when Berenson hosts an alumni weekend including games, golf and other activities. For many former players it is a highlight of the year. Berenson understands.”I came back (to Ann Arbor) every summer,” Berenson said. “Even when no one else was coming back, I came back to visit my coach and friends on campus and spent some time here. It was the best four years of my life and it’s nice to see that that hasn’t changed much.”