It’s that time of year again. Masterton Trophy nomination season has begun.
Matt Cullen's incredible career and reputation has led to him being nominated by the Pittsburgh Chapter of Professional Hockey Writers Association as the team's Masterton Trophy nominee.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 28, 2019
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For me this is just one big shoulder shrug. The award is well intentioned, but I can’t take it serious anymore. The reason?
A few years back Kris Letang had a stroke. In January of 2014 One of the best conditioned players in the entire league suffered an ailment that is usually reserved for people who haven’t taken care of themselves nearly the way Letang has and are nowhere close to being as young (26). Life can be very cruel sometimes. Letang returned the following season and was spectacular. A 55% CF%, 56% SCF%, 55% HDCF%, and a 1.0 5v5 points per 60 player. Not to mention overcoming the self-doubt of resuming play at the highest level of a contact sport. On the surface this should have been one of the easiest slam dunk cases for the Masterton in the history of the trophy. Not so much as it would turn out.
Devan Dubnyk apparently overcame something way worse. Being employed by the Edmonton Oilers and the Arizona Coyotes. He went from playing like crap on crappy teams to playing really well on an average team. This was the year I checked out on the award.
Having dubious winners isn’t the only reason this award is strange. So are some of the nominations. Matt Cooke was Pittsburgh’s choice for the award for… I guess because he didn’t violently end anybody’s career that year. Mike Harrington, then of the Buffalo News, felt like Ryan O’Reilly overcame a lot after driving his truck through a Tim Horton’s and leaving the scene while being drunk. Marc-Andre Fleury was nominated in 2017 for losing his starting job to a younger and better goalie while making 5.75M and still showing up to work. Every year there are eye rolling submissions for the award. It might be time to not force 30 nominations.
So I guess congratulations are in order for Matt Cullen who is dedicated to make $650k at 42 years old while being a replacement level player.
If the Pittsburgh PHWA really wanted a Penguin to win they should have gone with Matt Murray. He’s a goalie who played poorly and then started to play great. He even had to overcome the loss of a parent within the last year.
The obvious selection should be Robin Lehner who has not only dealt with mental illness, but was brave enough to share his story about trying to cope with his situation. He is also a goalie who was on a bad team playing bad and then started playing great. There is precedence for his on-ice play. More importantly his off-ice situation is a story that can help others beyond the hockey rink.
Thanks for reading!