Every year, each team in the NHL nominates one player for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. This year’s recipient from the Calgary Flames is the deserving Oliver Kylington.
What is the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy?
The trophy is commonly referred to as the Masterton Trophy or the Masterton, and is awarded annually to “the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.”
Selection and voting is completed by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Each team’s chapter votes to nominate a player from the team they cover, and then the whole Association votes on the winner for the award.
The trophy is named after the last Bill Masterton, a former Minnesota North Stars player who exemplified the characteristics associated with the award today. Masterton died on January 15, 1968 due to massive head injuries suffered during a game against the Oakland Seals. He remains the only player in history to die as a result of injuries sustained in a game.
Every year, the PWHA awards a grant to the Bill Masterton Scholarship Fund out of Bloomington, Minnesota in the name of that year’s Masterton Trophy winner.
Two Calgary Flames players have won the Masterton Trophy: Gary Roberts in 1996, and Lanny McDonald in 1983.
Oliver Kylington is a deserving nominee
There couldn’t be a more deserving player on the Flames, and arguably leaguewide, than Kylington.
He missed 20 months of hockey for personal reasons, and stepped into the lineup for the first time since 2021-22 earlier this year. He has maintained an infectiously positive attitude, exhibited unparalleled gratitude, and returned to play at a high level almost immediately.
The Calgary Chapter of the PWHA released this statement on their decision to nominate Kylington:
While Flames defenceman Oliver Kylington has preferred not to share all the details of his extended absence for mental-health reasons, the 26-year-old revealed as he returned to action in late January that he’d worried he may not be able to resume his promising career. As he told reporters prior to his first NHL game in nearly 20 months: “At one point in time, I didn’t think I was going to be here.” Kylington, who continued to work with Flames’ support staff through his time away from the game, is now once again a fixture on Calgary’s blue-line. His comeback is one of the best feel-good stories of the 2023-24 campaign and he has undoubtedly inspired and provided hope for many hockey fans facing their own mental-health challenges.
The Calgary chapter of the PHWA is pleased to nominate Oliver Kylington for the 2024 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
Calgary Chapter, Professional Hockey Writers Association
A huge congratulations goes out to Oliver Kylington on his nomination. He will be a frontrunner to win the award.
