Ryan Suter named Wild nominee for Masterton Trophy

A year after suffering a devastating ankle injury, defenseman Ryan Suter is the Minnesota Wild‘s nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Suter was nominated by the Twin Cities chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

The PHWA’s 31 chapters vote on the award at the end of the regular season.

Awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, the Masterton Trophy is named for the late Minnesota North Stars forward.

Suter suffered an injury to his right ankle on March 31, 2018, missing the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

He needed surgery to repair two bones, the fibula and talus, and was told that, in a different sport, the injury could have been career-ending.

Despite the injury, Suter has played in all 77 of the Wild’s games this season, and leads the NHL in average ice time at 26:52 and has seven goals and 39 assists (46 points) on the season.

The award has been won by a Wild player twice: Goaltender Josh Harding (2013) and goaltender Devan Dubnyk (2015).