The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. The winner is selected by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association after each team nominates one player in competition. It is often awarded to a player who has come back from career- or even life-threatening illness or injury. A player can win this trophy only once in his career.
Blair Betts has neither come back from a career or life threatening injury. However, what Mr. Betts does provide is what qualifies him for this award.
Blair Betts is the 4th line center. He is often asked to take crucial faceoffs and kill penalties. Stats not for the fantasy hockey players of the world. Betts , every night , plays as if he will not have a job tomorrow.
Betts was acquired during the great purge of 04, along with Greg Moore and Jaime McLennan for Chris Simon and a 7th rd draft pick.
Blair Betts blocks shots with reckless abandon. Blair may not score more then 5 goals in a season, but his contributions go far beyond those stats.
Every team needs a Blair Betts. He is a team guy, He is a guy who you want to go to war with. He is a guy who does the little things that some of the stars these days forget and are so crucial to getting a W.
Tom Renney relied on Betts for major minutes for the opponents top lines, with Betts often coming out on top. Torts uses him and Sjostrom on the PK first unit, and its no coincidence we are top 5 in penalty killing.
While Blair Betts may not win this award - he has won over many of the garden faithful and more importantly his teammates. He is a true Ranger. He is everything we the fans seek in a hockey player. Hard working, blue collar, bring your lunchpail type.
He may never get his number up in the rafters, but if the Rangers are to go about a winning a cup in the upcoming years, they would be wise to keep Mr. Betts on board for when the battles become wars. He is just the type of guy you want in that foxhole with you.
Former winners:
2000–01 — Adam Graves — New York Rangers — Awarded for all-around dedication to hockey
2001–02 — Saku Koivu — Montréal Canadiens — Overcame non-Hodgkin lymphoma
2002–03 — Steve Yzerman — Detroit Red Wings — Eventually overcame several health problems, but played only a small part of the 2002-03 NHL season
2003–04 — Bryan Berard — Chicago Blackhawks — Overcame an eye injury that rendered the eye legally blind.
2005–06 — Teemu Selänne — Mighty Ducks of Anaheim — Overcame major knee surgery to score 90 points
2006–07 — Phil Kessel — Boston Bruins — Missed 12 games because of testicular cancer mid season.
2007–08 — Jason Blake — Toronto Maple Leafs — Was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia but still played a full 82-game season.
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