Red Wings: Robby Fabbri Nominated for Masterton Trophy
By John Manzo
Detroit Red Wings forward Robby Fabbri was named the team nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy Tuesday. Here’s what it means.When you come back from two significant knee injuries, change teams and score double-digit goals and dish out double-digit assists, you deserve to be nominated for an award representing perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication.
That’s exactly what happened Tuesday when Red wings forward Robby Fabbri was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy awarded annually by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey, per NHL.com.
Fabbri is among nominees such as goalie Corey Crawford (Chicago Blackhawks), forward Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), goalie Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles Kings), defenseman Shea Weber (Montreal Canadians) and others from each team in the league. You can see the full list here.
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According to the NHL, the list will be narrowed to three finalists and the winner will be named at a later date.
What does this mean for the Red Wings?
In the short term, not much other than the feel-good of being up for a positive award in the midst of a disastrous season. On one hand, all teams have a representative so it feels like a participation award, but on the other hand, Fabbri deserves strong consideration given what he’s had to go through over the past few seasons to get to where he is at today – up for a pay raise with a team that believes in him.
In the long term, it signifies change. General manager Steve Yzerman made the move to acquire Fabbri for forward Jacob de la Rose, and it has been his best move since taking over for former general manager Ken Holland in 2019.
So while it’s an award that might not seem to mean much on the outside, it symbolizes more as the Red Wings look to change their ways and get back to being a perennial contender in the NHL.