Robin Lehner Deserves The Masterton Trophy This Year

The Masterton Trophy is the NHL’s award for perseverance, and many deserving names have won it. This year the most deserving nominee is New York Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner.

The Bill Masterton Trophy is the NHL’s annual award for perseverance given to its players. Last year, the winner of the award was then New Jersey Devils center Brian Boyle after he battled leukemia. This year’s Masterson Trophy finalists were recently announced as Joe Thornton from the San Jose Sharks, Nick Foligno from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Robin Lehner from the New York Islanders.

Foligno was nominated for his perseverance in dealing with his children’s health problems. Thornton got the nod for battling through injuries to continue playing hockey at his age. But the most deserving of the three is Lehner.

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Lehner has been a number one goaltender for a while now, but even in his best years before this one, his accomplishments got shuffled in the mix because he was playing on an underachieving Buffalo Sabres team after starting his career on the Ottawa Senators.

What fans, players, and management didn’t know was that behind the scenes, Lehner was suffering in silence with his own mental health issues. In an article he penned with The Athletic this past year, he opened up about his issues and how the support he received from the league, the Sabres, and the Islanders led him to not only recover but play the best season of his career.

Lehner writes in his article that the decision to come forward and seek professional help came with a late-season game with the Sabres where he suffered an on-ice panic attack, pulling him from the game and causing him to self-medicate that night with prescription pills and alcohol. He had originally made the decision to wait out until the end of the season, but the late March game convinced him to seek help immediately.

Luckily for Lehner, he received a ton of support to get this life back on track and to be the hockey player, father and husband he knew he could be. Even though he moved on from the Sabres, he speaks especially highly of both the help he received there and the support he got from GM Jason Botterill and of his relationship with his new team the New York Islanders.

Ever since becoming an Islander, he’s fully embraced the community and become a fan favorite. Remember when he made sure it was a young kid who got his stick after he threw it in the crowd? Or took time to meet with a young fan dealing with a heart condition? That’s Robin Lehner for you.

After his treatment was complete, at least in the form of returning home after being away at a treatment facility, Lehner faced the uncertain reality of playing sober hockey for the first time in his career.

"“Life does go on living without you being around. One of the hardest things now was getting back to hockey. I am an addict that was diagnosed as bipolar and ADHD with PTSD and trauma. I had never had a sober season of hockey my entire career. With those manic swings, I could see the pattern. When I was hypomanic and in a good mood, I was a solid goalie. The depressive state, not so much.But now there is a new reality. I can focus on my career.”"

Battling back is exactly what Lehner did. Although his services were not retained in Buffalo, he found a supportive GM in Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders willing to take a chance on him. It’s a chance that paid off dividends, as the Islanders surprised everyone to both a playoff berth and a first-round upset sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Anyone who knows hockey and watched those games would tell you none of those achievements would have happened without the goaltending heroics and career resurgence of Robin Lehner. In addition to his Masterton trophy nod, Lehner also received a nomination for the Vezina Trophy as well.

Lehner is next in line of a short, but growing list, of NHL players who have opened up the discussion of metal health struggles in the NHL. A few seasons earlier, former NHL forward Jordin Tootoo brought attention to the subject through his memoir “All The Way” where he talked openly about his family’s struggles with alcoholism and his brother’s suicide.

In today’s day and age, the talk and relationship between mental health and sports is a contentious one, at best, but players like Lehner who bravely come forward with their struggles and their recovery to show that it gets better are breaking down the barrier that discourages so many others to get help. It may not be a challenge that all people face, but to those who do the effects could be devastating.

Lehner’s success story is also a success story for the NHL as a whole. While the NHL might deal in the business of hockey more than mental health initiatives, Lehner’s experience shows that they do understand the risk it poses and more importantly they want to help their players get better in their time of need.

Lehner is a guy that’s seen the darkness, but with his love of the game and support from it, he was able to battle back. He’s become the feel good story of the playoffs and a storyline that’s both heartwarming and impossible to root against. At the end of his piece with The Athletic, Lehner explained the journey ahead of him in a way only an NHL goalie could.

"And now that I have begun my battle with what’s behind me, it’s time to battle what’s in front of me."

After a first round sweep of the Penguins, what’s in front of him is either going to be the Washington Capitals or Carolina Hurricanes. Hopefully not too far after that, he’ll be onstage at the NHL awards in Vegas with the Masterton Trophy in his hands.