SAN JOSE — The San Jose chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association announced today that San Jose Sharks forward Justin Bailey has been selected as its 2024 nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
The Masterton Trophy is awarded each season under the trusteeship of the PHWA to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.
Since signing a two-way contract with the Sharks on Nov. 27, Bailey, 28, has been in the lineup for every game the team has played. So far during the 2023-24 season, Bailey has played in 54 games, with 14 points (five goals, nine assists).
Bailey’s perseverance has become clear throughout his time in hockey.
Bailey, at 6-foot-4 and 214 pounds, split time between the AHL and NHL during the first eight years of his professional career, and he didn’t have a contract to start this season. After Bailey spent last season in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors following two shoulder surgeries, the Sharks invited him to training camp on a professional tryout agreement.
“The staples of my game are my speed, my size, and my physicality,” Bailey said. “So I knew coming into camp — whether they knew me or they didn’t — I wanted to make a name for myself from day one.”
Bailey, a Buffalo, N.Y. native, earned an AHL contract with San Jose after a strong camp that included one goal in three preseason games. Through 16 AHL games, Bailey led the Barracuda with six goals and was second on the team with 11 points, impressing enough to sign a two-way deal with the Sharks just over six weeks later.
The Sharks are Bailey’s fourth NHL team, as he has also played games for the Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks. He has also played for six AHL teams.
“That’s one thing I really appreciate from this organization,” Bailey said. “I’ve been in a lot of places where they don’t necessarily always see their minor league players play, and I feel here with the Sharks, it all being in the same area, having (general manager Mike Grier) and guys like that at practices, at games, it’s a little bit of added motivation.”
This season with the Sharks, Bailey has just six penalty minutes, tied for the fewest among the team’s skaters who have played at least 12 games.
Before turning pro, Bailey played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kitchener Rangers and Soo Greyhounds. He was drafted by the Sabres in the second round, 52nd overall, in 2013.
Bailey, who is biracial, experienced racism as a teenager and offers support to kids who have had similar experiences.
“The older you get, the more you realize things you went through as a kid are not really the way they should be,” Bailey said, “and the more you want to step in and do everything you can to help.”
The Masterton Trophy winner is selected from a poll of the 32 chapters of the PHWA at the end of the regular season and a $2,500 grant from the PHWA is awarded annually to the Bill Masterton Scholarship Fund, based in Bloomington, Minn., in the name of the winner.
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The PHWA first presented the Masterton Trophy in 1968 to commemorate the late Bill Masterton, a player with the Minnesota North Stars, who exhibited, to a high degree, the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Masterton died on Jan. 15, 1968, following an injury suffered in a game.
The three finalists for the Masterton Trophy will be announced later.
Former Shark Tony Granato received the award in 1997. Previous Sharks finalists for the award have been Patrick Marleau in 2020-2021, Joe Thornton in 2018-19, and Jed Ortmeyer in 2009-10.