It is award season in the NHL. As the playoffs continue, the list of finalists for various end-of-year awards continues to trickle out. It has been a tough season for many in the Columbus Blue Jackets’ organization, but a couple of their players have been recognized as finalists. Zach Werenski had previously been named a finalist for the James Norris Trophy, and news broke on May 2 that Sean Monahan has been named a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
The Masterton is an award that no one really wants to win, because generally it means that you’ve been through a significant amount of personal hardship. According to NHL.com, the award goes “to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” The most important word in that definition, based on award winners in the past who’ve won, is ‘perseverance.’
It tends to go to a player who returned to action after experiencing something traumatic. Be it returning to a high level of play after missing a lot of time due to an injury suffered in a game. Overcoming a physical medical condition, as Kris Letang did in 2023 when he had a strong season despite suffering a stroke mid-season, or Oskar Lindblom returning to play after a cancer diagnosis. Or staying with the game despite mental health hurdles. That was present in the stories of Connor Ingram’s win in 2024, and Robin Lehner and Bobby Ryan’s wins in 2019 and 2020. Those tend to be the types of players who win the Masterton.
Monahan was named a finalist along with the Minnesota Wild’s Marc-Andre Fleury, whose dedication to the game and its players has been evident through the highs and lows of his 21-season career. Gabriel Landeskog from the Colorado Avalanche was the other nominee. Landeskog fought back from an injury in 2022 to play his first NHL game in 1,032 days on April 26. Let’s look at Monahan’s path to the nomination.
How Does Monahan Fit the Masterton Criteria?
As I wrote above, it has been a tough season for the Blue Jackets’ organization. It certainly is not a competition for who has had it the worst, but you have to feel for Monahan. He was drafted sixth overall in 2013 and was one of the few players from that draft to instantly make the leap to the NHL.
He did well for himself as an 18-year-old, scoring over 20 goals and getting some votes as a Rookie of the Year candidate. It looked like the Flames had drafted the first-line center of their future, and for a while, they had. He had seven straight campaigns with 20-plus goals, and three over 30. He hit a snag in 2019-20 when his production dipped from a career high of 82 points to a five-year low of 48. It dipped even further the next two seasons when he was crushed by injuries, and he only scored 18 goals and 51 points through 115 games. He just didn’t look like himself.
Related: The Case for Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski to Win the Norris Trophy
For a guy they were paying to be their top line center, it was too much for too little production. The Flames, who at the time were hoping to be Stanley Cup contenders, paid a first-round draft pick to dump his salary to the bottom-feeding Montreal Canadiens. In that moment, it looked like Monahan’s days of being a productive top-six center were behind him. He was destined to play out the rest of his career as a bottom-six forward or end his career. He flipped that narrative on its head.
It started with a great season and a half on a fledgling Canadiens’ team. Then, in the lead-up to the 2024 Trade Deadline, he went from being sold with a first-round pick to being bought for a first-round pick by the Winnipeg Jets. He went on a pretty decent run to close the season, but the Jets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Monahan hit the open market in free agency and went to reunite with his best friend from their Flames days, Johnny Gaudreau, who was making his home in Columbus.
It was a summer of excitement as the two, with their young families, got an opportunity to grow together, both under contract for the next five years in Columbus. Then, the unimaginable tragedy that rocked the hockey world, and that best friend was taken away in one horrific incident. Just as things were coming together on the ice for Monahan, everything fell apart off of it.
Despite everything he’s been through on and off the ice, he wound up having maybe the best statistical season of his career. He also dealt with some more injury hardship over the season with a wrist injury. Despite that, his 57 points in 54 games were only the second time in his career that he’s scored at an over a point-per-game pace. It also put him on track for 86 points, which would have been a career high. He was also a part of one of the best overall lines in hockey, flanked by Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov.
Monahan’s career resurgence and return to top-line center form in the wake of personal tragedy certainly make him more than qualified for the Masterton Trophy. It’s a strange phenomenon, this award. The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) have to decide who was dealt the worst hand and was still able to break even. Monahan being named a finalist is recognition from those around the league that what he’s been able to do has been nothing short of remarkable, and he’s certainly been to hell and back to earn that respect.
