Defenseman Jacob Trouba won the Mark Messier Award for NHL leadership. The 30-year-old American hockey player received the trophy, which has been awarded since 2007, as the first New York Rangers player.
On the one hand, Trouba is a known rebel, and his fights often go to the edge of the permitted methods of overseas competition. He reminded this very loudly just a week ago, when he almost killed the Czech attacker Martin Nečas with his brutal intervention.
The American defender found Nečas in front of the goal post when he was driving the thrown puck into the third. The native of Nové Město na Moravá noticed the threat at the last moment, managed to dodge in such a way that the New York Rangers quarterback flew into the goalpost directly at his head.
“Trouba is so crazy. I like honest hits, even some of the small crimes. But this was a thoroughbred headhunt,” the former defender of St. Louis Blues Jordan Schmaltz.
However, every coin has two sides.
As captain, Trouba led the Rangers to a regular season victory that saw New York complete a club-record 55 wins. Outside the ice, Trouba sold his works as an amateur painter and sent the money to charity.
He and his wife Kelly, who suffers from epilepsy, also founded a foundation that helps people with the same condition through art therapy. Together, they also actively supported the NHL and NHLPA’s program calling for regular cancer screenings.
