The veteran defenseman overcame the challenges of back surgery to appear in 47 games, and scored goals in back-to-back games the final weekend. DeKeyser’s resilience in the face of a career-threatening injury earned him the distinction of being the Detroit chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association nominee for the 2021 Masterton Trophy.
To add clarity to how this works, every city’s PHWA chapter nominates a player from that team for the Masterton, then one is chosen as the winner. Last season, Bobby Ryan won it. This season there are a lot of good candidates. I think DeKeyser is the obvious choice for Detroit, but isn’t likely to be named the leaguewide winner.