NHL Leadership Award
Defenseman honored for leading role in community, charity work
ByNHL.com
May 15, 2024
Jacob Trouba won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award on Tuesday. The award is presented annually to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey.
The New York Rangers captain has been a staple in the metropolitan area, including participating in the Rangers Youth Hockey Camp, during which he works with boys and girls between the ages of 6-12 with on-and-off ice training sessions.
Trouba and his wife, Dr. Kelly Tyson-Trouba, founded The Trouba Creative Expressions Arts Program, which offers art services to adults with epilepsy and seizures through the Epilepsy Foundation of Metropolitan New York. Through the program, Trouba creates artwork, which he auctions off, by wearing his hockey equipment covered in paint and striking a canvas.
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Jacob Trouba wins Mark Messier Leadership Award
He also works with The Garden of Dreams Foundation, which is committed to bringing life-changing opportunities to young people facing illness, financial challenges, or dealing with the death or injury of a family member in uniform. At the end of last season, Trouba presented Isaiah Marquez-Greene, a survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut who lost his sister in the tragedy, with a scholarship to help fund law school.
Trouba has helped raise more than $160,000 for his own foundation and The Garden of Dreams Foundation.
In addition, Trouba is involved in the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s joint Hockey Fights Cancer initiative and starred with his mother, Kristy, in AstraZeneca’s “Get Body Checked Against Cancer” campaign, which encourages fans to talk to their doctors and get regular screenings.
Trouba is also a finalist this season for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is presented annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community. This is the second straight season Trouba has been the Rangers’ nominee for the award.
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Jacob Trouba wins Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award
On the ice, Trouba helped the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best record in the NHL after finishing with the most wins (55) and points (114) in a season in their history. He had 22 points (three goals, 19 assists) in 69 games and was fourth on the Rangers in average ice time per game (21:15), including leading them in short-handed ice time per game (2:51). The 30-year-old defenseman also led New York with 183 blocks and was second with 191 hits.
New York currently leads the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Second Round. Game 6 of the best-of-7 series will be in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SNO, SNE, SN360, TVAS, CBC).
“Obviously, [it’s] special,” Trouba said Wednesday. “Any leadership award is a pretty special honor, but obviously it has a little extra meaning coming from him. He’s a pretty pinnacle figure in New York history and NHL history as a whole with his level of success, so yeah, it means a lot for me to come in this organization and walk by his jersey every day going to get breakfast.
“It’s definitely special for me, but not something I’m too deep into thought on now. I’ll probably reflect on it later.”
Messier, a Hockey Hall of Famer who played for the Edmonton Oilers, Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, solicits suggestions from team and NHL personnel to compile a list of candidates for the award before selecting a winner.
Trouba is the first Rangers player to win the award.
“Well, one of the first things I did when I was named captain was read your book, which I recommend everybody read, and a guy that’s so accomplished,” Trouba said to Messier on ESPN’s studio show “The Point.” “One thing that stuck with me is that you titled the book ‘No One Wins Alone.’ And I think that says a lot about how you lead, and you lean on people around you and people help you. It’s a lot of your everyday, how you treat people, how you live your life, the example you set, obviously, on and off the ice. A lot goes into it but there’s also a lot of people who help you along the way, and you lean on those people, and leadership’s a group effort.”
The Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award is the first to be handed out this postseason. Five more awards will be handed out in May, with nine more coming in June, including five at the NHL Awards at the Fountainbleau Las Vegas on June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN).
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