MASTERTON MEMORIAL
Oilers’ Maroon gets history lesson on NHL award
Edmonton Oilers winger and Masterton Trophy nominee Patrick Maroon admittedly needed a history lesson on who Bill Masterton was, how he tragically died when his head hit the ice in the late 1960s while playing for the Minnesota North Stars.
Also a Coles Notes rundown of what the NHL award is about — perseverance and dedication to hockey — and some of the players who have won it over the years. Jaromir Jagr last year, Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu and Jamie McLennan in seasons past.
Either Hall-of-Famers-to-be with illustrious, long careers such as Jagr and Selanne or players who’ve overcome major health issues like Koivu (cancer) and McLellan (flesh-eating disease).
“It’s actually for sportsmanship, too,” someone mentioned to Maroon.
“Me?” said Maroon, a welt on his nose after a scrap with the Kings’ Jarome Iginla.
Regardless, Maroon is the Oilers nominee for the award as voted on by the NHL’s Professional Hockey Writers Association. A 30-goal campaign is within reach for Maroon after a career high of 12 last season split between Anaheim and Edmonton. He took it upon himself to get into better shape last summer and he has done that and thrived alongside Connor McDavid for much of this season.
How much better is his game today than last year?
“I’ve matured as a player and it’s helped that I can play on a regular line every night,” said Maroon, who spent time on the Anaheim Ducks’ top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, but didn’t stick.
“You’re coming to the rink, not worrying who you’re going to be playing with or what line. Being in the lineup every night, whether it’s with Connor or Nuge (centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins), Todd (McLellan, the Oilers’ head coach) has given me the opportunity to succeed and be in every situation to prove that I can be a good player in this league.
“You get to go through slumps, through adversity during a year … to know what that feels like physically and emotionally instead of playing two games, then out one. I’d do that in Anaheim and I think that messed with my head a bit. I was always confused, I didn’t know why. Never mind, Anaheim was the first team to give me a chance to play in the NHL and had some really good players. I was challenged to be a good player with a lot of left wingers.”
Maroon’s former Ducks teammate Andrew Cogliano says he “always thought” Maroon was capable of producing “if he was in the right spot.”
“I thought he could get more than 20 goals because he has good hands,” said the former Oiler. “He never scored a ton with his shot like some guys who fire shots every game, but he was always good here at putting in rebounds around the net.
“Patty’s one of the best players in the league at protecting the puck … he was hell to play against in practice here. You automatically have zone time because you can’t take the puck off him.
“He looks faster, which is scary to me. He lost some weight.
“You’d see glimpses (production) of him doing well with us. He’d be on the first power play, but then he’d be off. Now you see it in Edmonton.”
Maroon rolled his eyes at the sportsmanship part of the Masterton.
“I like to stick up for my teammates. I’m an honest player and if somebody wants a fight … ”
Does he ever worry about breaking his hand?
“You worry about lots of things … knock on wood,” he said. “I worry about getting knocked out, hurting myself. Absolutely I do that, but it gets the boys fired up.”