Schwartz, a Kraken alternate captain, has battled through an injury-interrupted season. He has eight goals and 15 assists in 37 games. He missed 20-plus games mid-season with a hand injury and has been sidelined (upper-body) since March 23. By all accounts, he has remained a leader among his teammates despite the challenges of not staying in the lineup.
The legacy of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy stretches from 1968 inaugural winner Claude Provost, a career Montreal Canadiens right wing whose teams won nine Stanley Cups in 15 seasons, to last season's winner, Philadelphia's Oskar Lindblom, who recovered from a form of bone cancer to return to the 2020-21 and 2021-22 lineups for the Flyers. Both players fit the bill of the trophy's purpose of awarding it based on "perseverance and dedication to hockey."
The award's legacy equally connects to its namesake, Bill Masterton, the only player in NHL history to die from injuries suffered during a game. Masterton was a star player at the University of Denver in the early 1960s, leading his team to back-to-back NCAA championships and being named most valuable player of the 1961 collegiate tournament.
Masterton played a bit for the Montreal Canadiens organization, not able to crack that dynasty's roster despite starring in both the now defunct Eastern Professional Hockey League and the American Hockey League. He was the AHL Cleveland Barons' leading scorer during the 1962-63 season.
Facing the hard facts of a loaded Canadiens team at the center position, Masterton opted to complete a master's degree at his alma mater University of Denver, later accepting a job with the Minneapolis-based Honeywell Corporation to work on the Apollo space program. He sat out an entire season of hockey, submitting to regain his amateur status, which was granted. Masterton played two seasons for the local St. Paul Steers and captained the U.S. national team during 1967 while he and his wife, Carol, also adopted two young children during that time span.
All impressive stuff, and noticed by Minnesota North Stars management. The North Stars were one of six expansion franchises slated to join the NHL for the 1967-68 season (sometimes called the "Next Six" to pair with the "Original Six" teams in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit).
Masterton was the first player signed by the North Stars, giving him a second chance at his dream of playing in the NHL. He made the Minnesota roster and even scored the first goal in team history.
Tragically, the dream was cut short in January 1968 during Masterton's rookie season. During the first period of a home game, Masterton was skating full speed up the ice when two defenders incidentally converged on him at the same time, resulting in the North Stars fan favorite to fall backward on the ice, hitting his bare head. Scant players wore helmets back then. Chicago star Stan Mikita had just made the decidedly un-macho move to wear a helmet just a month earlier that season.
All observers contend the collision represented a "clean hit." Carol Masterton bore no ill will, saying publicly the play was a "fluke" and could have happened to anyone. Medical experts contend Masterton may well have lost consciousness even before he fell to the ice. Thirty hours later, with his wife and parents bedside, Masterton passed away without waking from a coma.
The injury and death shook the NHL, stirring more debate about making it mandatory for players to wear helmets. That controversy required another 11 years before helmet regulations in the NHL. More immediate to honor his memory, the NHL created the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, its first nameplate to be awarded to Provost six months later in 1968. The North Stars retired his jersey No. 19 and when that franchise moved to Texas as the Dallas Stars, the jersey followed.
