One thing college hockey hopes to instill in its players is the importance of giving back to their communities, a message that's clearly reached 12 former players honored as team winners of the Man of the Year awards in the AHL.

Those honorees are:

• Corban Knight, Abbotsford (North Dakota)
• Michael Davies, Chicago (Wisconsin)
• Cameron Schilling, Hershey (Miami)
• Bryan Lerg, Lake Erie (Michigan State)
• Mark Van Guilder, Milwaukee (Notre Dame)
• Taylor Fedun, Oklahoma City (Princeton)
• Kyle Hagel, Portland (Princeton)
• Mike Moore, Providence (Princeton)
• Pat Mullane, Rockford (Boston College)
• Joey Crabb, San Antonio (Colorado College)
• Andrew Joudrey, Springfield (Wisconsin)
• Brandon DeFazio, Utica (Clarkson)

The 12 former college players represent nine schools, with Princeton (three honorees) and Wisconsin (two) boasting multiple winners.

From the list of 30 team award winners, representatives from IOA/American Specialty and the AHL will choose the winner of the 2013-14 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award. The AHL's annual Man of the Year award is named after the late Yanick Dupre, who died in 1997 at the age of 24, following a 16-month battle with leukemia. Dupre, an AHL All-Star in 1995, played four seasons with the Hershey Bears and also skated in 35 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers.