Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price Named Finalist for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was named as the Habs nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy last month. Today, it was announced that he was one of three finalists for the award.

While each team nominated one player for their perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, only three are invited to attend the annual NHL Awards. Price, along with New York Islanders defenceman Zdeno Chara and Philadelphia Flyers centre Kevin Hayes are the three finalists for the award.

Price dealt with several issues all season, only to battle back and get on the ice for five games to close out the Habs season. This award is in memory of Bill Masterton, a player who died as a result of an on-ice incident where he was hit and made significant impact with the ice in a time when almost no one wore helmets.

Price was terrific in the 2021 postseason, playing the best hockey we have seen from him in years. He helped the Canadiens make a run to the Stanley Cup Final, but all along he was dealing with some nagging injuries that would require offseason surgery.

He had an operation on his knee following the season, but it started out looking like he would be ready by the end of training camp. Initial reports were that he might miss the start of training camp, but could be ready to play in the team’s opening game of the regular season.

But it would be mid-April before we saw Price again. He entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program for substance use in October and was there for a month. When he finally returned to the ice in November, he took things very slow, but had a couple of setbacks along the way.

There were two or three times where it started to appear that he was close to game action, only for his knee to start bothering him again, and he would be shut down for a while. Just when it started to look like he wouldn’t be back all season, he was in the crease to face the New York Islanders on April 15th.

All along he knew this team was not getting back to the playoffs and were likely to finish last overall. Still, he put himself through what had to be tremendous agony and gruelling workouts to get back on the ice. All without the guarantee he would ever play a full season ever again.

Hayes is up for the award after his brother Jimmy suddenly passed away just before the season began.

Chara is in the running because he is really old.

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