On Wednesday, the NHL announced that Boston Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo was nominated for the Bill Masterson Trophy. The trophy is awarded to players who exemplify perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Korpisalo is one of five netminders who were nominated for the award.
The other goalies are John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks, Calvin Pickard of the Edmonton Oilers, Marc-Andre Fleury of the Minnesota Wild, and Ivan Fedotov of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Korpisalo a Curious Choice for the Award
While Korpisalo definitely fits most of, if not all of, the criteria for the award – at least for the Bruins – he is a curious choice for the award. It’s not that he is a bad player, it’s the fact that he is the backup goaltender for Boston. While each goaltender on this list is considered to be the secondary option on their team in net, he and Fleury hold the title of biggest difference between games they have started and the team’s starter.
In 26 games (23 starts) this season for the Bruins since coming over in the trade for Linus Ullmark over the summer in 2024, Korpisalo holds a record of 10-10-3 with a career-high three shutouts on the season. He was named an All-Star in 2020 and was a Calder Cup champion in 2016, but up until this point in his career, he had not been nominated for anything on an individual basis.
However, Korpisalo has been a bit of a saving grace for Boston in a season that has caused the Bruins to put out the facade of being an underachieving franchise. The reality is that they have been a sinking ship from the first stretch of the season where Jim Montgomery was fired barely over 15 games into the season.
There were many positions that Boston felt strongly about going into the season; however, despite the past two seasons of success, goaltending was not one of them, and Korpisalo seems to have proven the doubters wrong. To see him be nominated for an award that is predicated on perseverance and dedication to hockey, it is reassuring for the Bruins going into the 2025-26 season where they look to go from bottom of the barrel and rise to the top of at the very least the Eastern Conference, if not the league as a whole.
Korpisalo is a well-traveled goalie, having played for the Los Angeles Kings, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Ottawa Senators before finding himself in a situation in Boston that appears to be his niche. After all, the Bruins do have a thing for developing Finnish goaltenders, like Korpisalo himself, into successful Boston goaltenders.
If he were to win the trophy, Korpisalo would be the first Bruins player to win the award since Phil Kessel won it in the 2006-07 season following a battle with testicular cancer that caused him to miss 12 games. Kessel, however, played the rest of the season for Boston. Outside of Connor Ingram in the 2023-24 season, Korpisalo would also become the first netminder to win the award since Carey Price in 2021-22, and the first ever in franchise history.
Given the Bruins’ position in the standings, it would not be surprising to see Korpisalo in net for the rest of the regular season. Boston has three games left in the regular season, and going into Thursday night’s matchup with the Chicago Blackhawks, they sit in a two-way tie for last place in the conference overall with the Philadelphia Flyers.
