Devan Dubnyk named the Masterton Trophy Awardee

Devan Dubnyk of the Minnesota Wild was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy tonight at the NHL Awards.

From Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

The goalie, who was the key factor in the Wild’s second-half run that resulted in a playoff berth, was honored for his perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

Devan Dubnyk, the goalie acquired in January who rescued the Wild’s season, was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy at the NHL Award Show on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

The Masterton is given annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. The trophy is named after former North Star Bill Masterton, who died in 1968 after an on-ice injury.

With the Wild eight points outside of a playoff spot when he made his team debut on Jan. 15, Dubnyk led Minnesota to its consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Dubnyk, who set a franchise record with 38 consecutive starts following his acquisition from Arizona, went 27-9-2 with a 1.78 goals-against average, .936 save percentage and five shutouts after joining the Wild.

He was the winning goaltender in 11 of the Wild’s 12 consecutive road wins (Feb. 18-April 9) that tied the 2005-06 Red Wings for the longest such run in NHL history.

Overall, Dubnyk finalist finished the season second in the NHL with a 2.07 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. He also ranked in the top 10 in shutouts (tied for fourth with six) and wins (tied for sixth with 36).

Dubnyk is the second Wild player to win the Masterton. In 2013, goalie Josh Harding won the award while battling multiple sclerosis.

Dubnyk also was finalist for the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the outstanding goaltender. That award went to Montreal’s Carey Price, who led the NHL in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (. 933). The other Vezina finalist was Nashville’s Pekka Rinne.

Carey Price was the big winner at the 2015 NHL Awards

The 2015 NHL Awards were held tonight in Las Vegas, and Carey Price came away the big winner.

He was awarded the Ted Lindsay Award (best player as voted on by his peers), Jennings Trophy ("the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it ... based on regular-season play." Price shared it with Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks who tied for a league-leading 189 team goals-against in the 2014-15 season), Vezina Trophy (best goaltender in the NHL), and the Hart Memorial Trophy (the player deemed most valuable to his team.)

Price is the first goalie to win the Hart Trophy since José Theodore won the Vezina and Hart back in 2002.

Sports Illustrated's 2014-15 NHL Goalie Masks Gallery

Until I have a chance to update my blog, here is the link to Sports Illustrated's gallery from this season. They usually only include 2 goalies per team, maybe 3.

Also, I wasn't able to get the gallery to work using Google Chrome, but it did work on Internet Explorer (just in case you have problems.)

Sports Illustrated 2014-15 Mask Gallery

Thanks for still checking in, updates after the season

I just received a comment that reminded me that I wanted to post and let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking, even though I've been very quiet around here.

I've had a very rough 6 months with my dad's poor health, and it's kept me distracted from keeping my entries updated here.

I hope to be able to catch up in the next month or so, even though the NHL season will be over. I would still like the entries to be updated, because I know people come to look down the road even after the seasons are over.