Brooklyn Boro

Lee leads Islanders both on and off the ice

Top goal scorer up for NHL’s annual humanitarian award

April 26, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Anders Lee scored his 40th goal of the season in the Islanders’ season finale in Detroit earlier this month. He will find out Monday if he is one of three finalists for the NHL’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s top humanitarian off the ice. AP photo by Paul Sancya
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Anders Lee became the New York Islanders’ first 40-goal scorer in more than a decade this past season.

He is shooting for a much more meaningful achievement this summer.

The 27-year-old Minnesota native was named the Brooklyn-based NHL franchise’s nominee for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy earlier this week.

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He will find out Monday if he is one of the three finalists for the award given annually to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

Lee’s on-the-ice achievements have been well-chronicled since the team arrived in Brooklyn back in 2015. During the Isles’ first three seasons in our fair borough, the left winger has deposited a team-best 89 pucks past opposing netminders, racking up 74 of those over the past two campaigns.

Lee, who became the first Islander with at least 40 goals in a season since Jason Blake back in 2006-07 during New York’s regular season-ending 4-3 victory in Detroit earlier this month, doesn’t have to look very far to find the last player in franchise history to capture the King Clancy.

Isles head coach and former All-Star center Doug Weight was the last New York player to win the award, doing so in 2011. The only other Islander to receive the honor was Hall of Fame center Bryant Trottier in 1989.

“The nominees were selected by their respective NHL clubs,” the league revealed in an official release. “The winner will be selected by a committee of senior NHL executives led by Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.

“The King Clancy Memorial Trophy winner will receive a $40,000 donation from the National Hockey League Foundation to benefit a charity or charities of the winner’s choice and the two runners-up will each receive a $5,000 donation from the National Hockey League Foundation to benefit a charity or charities of their choice.”

Lee got the nod from Isles management after raising $110,000 for pediatric cancer research with his second annual Kancer Jam on the Brooklyn Nets’ practice court at Barclays Center following New York’s 5-3 loss to Minnesota on Feb. 19.

Though he registered his 30th goal of the campaign during the Presidents’ Day matinee, it was what he did afterward that put Lee in line for a spot at NHL’s 2018 awards ceremony on June 20 in Las Vegas, where the winner of the King Clancy will be revealed.

Lee quickly changed out of his gear, gathered some of his teammates and engaged in a 32-team frisbee toss tournament to benefit children from the area who have been affected by cancer, surpassing the total of $100,000 raised for research at the inaugural event in 2017.

“It’s just a special night,” said Lee, who just completed the third season of a four-year, $15 million contract with the Isles, the team that drafted him out of the University of Notre Dame in 2009.

“To be able to raise this much money is pretty incredible,” he added. “And to do it the second year in a row, it’s awesome and it’s one of those things we look to grow and get better and bigger. It’s going to go a long way for these kids with pediatric cancer and these families that are going through such difficult times. We’ll be able to help them out a lot.” 

If Lee becomes a King Clancy finalist on Monday, he won’t be going to Vegas alone.

Fellow front-liner Mathew Barzal, who led all NHL first-year players and the team with 63 assists and 85 points in 2017-18, is the frontrunner to receive the league’s Calder Trophy, given annually to the sport’s top rookie.

Barzal, who also potted 22 goals while tying Trottier’s franchise rookie assists record, will go up against Vancouver’s Brock Boeser and Arizona’s Clayton Keller for the award, which has not gone to an Islander since defenseman Bryan Berard won it in 1996-97.

The 20-year-old Barzal, who can’t legally buy a beer in Brooklyn until May 26, is looking forward to being in Vegas with the rest of the league’s luminaries. If he does grab the Calder, Barzal would join an exclusive list of Islander legends in doing so.

Along with Berard, only Islander Hall of Famers Dennis Potvin (1973-74), Trottier (1975-76) and Mike Bossy (1977-78) have previously been named the league’s top rookie.

“It’d be pretty good,” Barzal told Newsday when asked what it would feel like to win the award.

“It’s a pretty good group of guys that have won that, some Hall of Famers,” he added. “If I could be in that conversation, it would be pretty special. It’s something that, halfway through the season, you can’t ignore because everybody is talking about it. My teammates helped me a lot with that, just with the assists and them putting the puck in the net. Yeah, it’d be special to win it.”

 


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