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May 15, 2024, 08:26 PM ET
Connor Ingram, the goaltender who shared how his undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder led him to drink to cope with anxiety and has blossomed into a full-time NHL player, has won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Ingram had a breakout performance for the Arizona Coyotes this past season, years removed from seeking and receiving help from the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, which is run jointly by the league and union and has been in the headlines lately for others’ participation.
“You don’t do these things for awards. I did this to get my life back together,” Ingram told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “The fact that you get recognized for it is something that a lot of people who put their life back together don’t get.”
The other finalists were Calgary’s Oliver Kylington, who stepped away for more than a year and a half for mental health reasons, and Carolina’s Frederik Andersen, who missed several months this season while dealing with blood clotting issues. The Masterton is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
“Those other two guys were more than deserving, so just to be in that group and to be a part of it’s pretty exciting,” Ingram said.
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Ingram was on Nashville’s practice squad early in the pandemic-delayed and shortened 2021 season when he went into the player assistance program and left the Predators in late January. He returned to play a handful of games for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League that spring, but it wasn’t until he sold his house and cars and moved from his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Nashville that summer that he met his fiancée and got back on track.
“I just restarted,” he said. “It was good for me, and it was good to restart.”
Ingram made his NHL debut Oct. 24, 2021 — roughly nine months after going into the program — and appeared in four playoff games in the spring of 2022 when…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40154344/utah-connor-ingram-wins-masterton-trophy-perseverance
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Publish date : 2024-05-16 01:26:56
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