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Former Blazers goaltender Connor Ingram wins Masterton Trophy

Victor Kaisar
May 15, 2024 | 4:58 PM


Former Blazers goaltender Connor Ingram wins Masterton Trophy

Photo via NHL

Former Kamloops Blazers goaltender Connor Ingram won the 2024 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

The award recognizes the “player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

Presented by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), it is named after Bill Masterton, the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game.

Ingram is coming off a career year where he posted a 23-21-3 record, 2.91 goals-against average, .907 save percentage and tied for a league-best six shutouts in 50 appearances for the Arizona Coyotes.

“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 27-year-old almost retired due to an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and lingering depression before he sought help through the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program on Jan. 25, 2021.

He spent 40 days in a mental health treatment centre and made his NHL debut Oct. 24, 2021.

“You’ve got to put the work in to feel good,” Ingram told NHL.com earlier this season. “You know what sets you off or what makes you calm, whatever it may be. It’s like addiction. You know if you go anywhere near that, it’s going to cause you problems, so I stay away from anything that might cause me to have a flare-up or be anxious or anything like that.”

“It’s just putting in work, going to therapy, taking care of yourself.

Claimed off waivers by Arizona in October 2022, Ingram appeared in 27 games for the club in 2022-23 before establishing himself as the Coyotes’ starting netminder this season.

Ingram played three seasons in Kamloops between 2014 and 2017, and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.

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 were also nominated for the Memorial Trophy.

“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 told the Associated Press.