The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is given out annually to the NHL player who exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The award has been voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association since 1968, and Tuesday they announced their nominees for 2021.
Past winners of the award include Bobby Ryan (2020), Robin Lehner (2019), Brian Boyle (2018), Craig Anderson (2017), Jaromir Jagr (2016), Devan Dubnyk (2015), Dominic Moore (2014) and Josh Harding (2013).
Each team provided a nominee for the award. The finalists this season are Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild, Oskar Lindblom of the Philadelphia Flyers and Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks.
Dumba won the King Clancy Trophy last season for his humanitarian efforts and earlier this year hosted the Hockey Without Limits camp, which aims to promote inclusion and diversity at the grassroots level. The Wild defenseman continued his strong play on the ice, recording 21 points in 51 games for Minnesota while averaging over 22 minutes a game for the fourth consecutive season.
Lindblom meanwhile continues to be one of the best stories in hockey, even if his production dried up this season. The 24-year-old was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in December 2019 and could have easily seen his NHL career end on the spot. Instead, he battled through treatment for months and returned for the Flyers in the playoff bubble. This season, Lindblom played in 50 of the team’s 56 games, scoring eight goals and 14 points.
If the award is for perseverance and dedication to hockey, it’s hard not to think of Marleau every year. The 41-year-old has now gone more than a decade without missing a game due to injury and this season passed Gordie Howe for the most regular-season games played in NHL history. Marleau has suited up for nearly 2,000 NHL games in total and still hopes to return next year.
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