The phone calls. The promises. The threats. The Montreal Canadiens had used them all.

They wanted the kid wearing Michigan hockey's No. 9 sweater to sign a pro contract. But he wanted to stay in school — to get his degree. The Canadiens didn't want to wait. They called the kid after his freshman season, trying to sign him to a contract. He said no. As a sophomore, the result was the same.

No. 9 went on to become an All-American his junior year. And Montreal came calling again. The response was always the same.

He told the Canadiens he wasn't going to leave Michigan. He wasn't going to leave his classmates. He wasn't going to leave his team and he wasn't going to leave his school.

Montreal realized the talented center’s thirst for education during his time at Michigan. They also realized it wasn’t going away. Eventually, they brought him to the foot of Mount Royal in downtown Montreal — the site of McGill University. The Canadiens had thought of a compromise.

Sign with them, play a grueling NHL schedule and get your degree at McGill at the same time. It may be an unconventional strategy for an NHL team in today’s terms, but this was the 1960s. So the young hockey standout had a meeting with the dean of McGill’s engineering school.

The dean only reinforced his original decision.

“He said ‘Son, you can’t go to school, and play pro hockey in the NHL and miss days and weeks,’ ” the not-so young anymore, now former center said last week.

The dean’s next thought may have been the most important.

“Besides, Michigan’s got a better engineering school than we do, so stay at Michigan.”

More than 40 years before he would lead the Wolverines into the 2010-11 season as Michigan’s coach, Red Berenson’s decision didn’t waver.

“I was reinforced everywhere I looked,” Berenson said. “The right thing to do was stay in school.”

And Berenson reaped the benefits. In his final year donning the maize-and-blue, he scored 43 goals (still a Michigan record) and 70 points in just 28 games. The year ended with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

The night after the season ended, Berenson finally signed with Montreal and began what would be a 17-year NHL career, which included a Stanley Cup win.

Long before leaving early for the NHL was a common practice in college hockey, Red Berenson stayed.

***

Kevin Porter had to talk to his coach.

After being drafted in the fifth round by the Phoenix Coyotes out of high school, the Michigan forward had blossomed into a prolific scorer in his three years in Ann Arbor. Phoenix offered him a pro contract after his sophomore year and he turned it down. After leading the team in scoring his junior season, the Coyotes came back and made another offer.

This year was a bit different though. Then-sophomore Jack Johnson left soon after Michigan’s loss to North Dakota in the NCAA Tournament. And Andrew Cogliano, whom Porter outscored the previous season, jumped directly into an NHL lineup. Today Porter says he wasn’t seriously considering leaving, he just wanted to run it by Berenson.

“He wasn’t too happy about it,” Porter said. “He sat down and gave me some pros and cons and we talked about it and that was it. I never told him, ‘I’m leaning towards leaving,’ or ‘I’m leaning towards staying,’ I just wanted to get his input and talk with the coaches about it and see what they thought and I did that.”

The year may have been different, but the decision didn't change. Porter returned to captain the Wolverines in his senior season. Like Berenson, he reaped the rewards. Porter put up in 63 points in 43 games in his senior season, winning the Hobey Baker Award. His team, consisting of just three seniors and 12 freshmen, ended one win away from the national championship game.

Among that large class of freshmen were Carl Hagelin, Louie Caporusso and Matt Rust. They were similar to Porter: middle-to-late round draft picks who showed some promise at the collegiate level. They saw what Porter did.

When everybody else was leaving early, Kevin Porter stayed.

***

Three years later, Hagelin, Caporusso and Rust sit in the Michigan coaches lounge before practice.

The top three scorers on the team during their junior seasons, the trio followed in the footsteps of their coach and their teammate. The three returned for their final year, along with the rest of their team.