OTTAWA — If not for some guy named Jaromir Jagr, Brian Campbell’s perseverance might well have earned him the Florida Panthers nomination for the Bill Masterton Trophy.
As the former Ottawa 67’s star returned to his junior-hockey roots with the playoff-bound Panthers Thursday, he mused about his pride in playing his 1,000th NHL game in Montreal earlier in the week.
Even though Campbell was the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year in 1998-99, such a notion appeared unlikely when he turned pro at the turn of the century.
He was a sixth-round draft pick by the Buffalo Sabres.