Carey Price Wins 2022 Bill Masterton Trophy

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price has been awarded the 2022 Bill Masterton Trophy.

While his future with the Montreal Canadiens and in the NHL remains unclear due to his nagging and surgically repaired knee, one thing is clear and it’s that Price has and continues to be worthy of the Masterton Trophy that the Professional Hockey Writers Association awards annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The winner is selected in a poll amongst the 32 chapters of the PHWA at the end of the regular season. The trophy commemorates the late Bill Masterton, a player with the Minnesota North Stars, who lost his life following an NHL game on January 15, 1968.

Carey Price beat out defenceman Zdeno Chara of the New York Islanders and forward Kevin Hayes of the Philadelphia Flyers on the ballot.

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is given to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.

Carey Price took the opportunity to thank the many people in his life that supported him this season. #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/LxVdtwYws0

— NHL (@NHL) June 3, 2022

After offseason knee surgery, Carey Price missed the first 74 games of the 2021-22 regular season and didn’t make his first start until April 15. Carey Price also entered the NHL’s players assistance program on October 7, 2021, and then joined the team in November but not to game action. In five games over the last two weeks of the season, Price was 1-4-0 with a 3.63 GAA and .878 save percentage. He earned that one win with a 37-save performance in a 10-2 win over the Florida Panthers in the season finale on April 29. The following day, Carey Price acknowledged that he is not the goalie he used to be before the knee injury and treated that last game of the season as his last. 

“Yep. The whole day. …it was just an exceptional day for myself. I had a great sleep, it was just an A+ day,” Price replied when asked point-blank if he prepared for the 2021-22 season finale for the Montreal Canadiens Friday as if ‘it may be it’

“So if it is it, then that would be great way to do it.”

This past week, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes told the media that Price’s future with the team and in the NHL remains uncertain.

The only way we could have complete clarity is if we learned he could not play,” the Montreal Canadiens GM told the media in a Zoom call Tuesday. “We’ll just have to see how he responds once he’s back to the rigours of a regular season schedule. The draft is not as critical as, say, July 13, in knowing his situation. If he’s not playing, then we have the option of LTIR that we could use, but without that information we don’t have the luxury of using it.”