EDMONTON – Connor Ingram went from being told to not report back to Utah Mammoth training camp to starting in goal for the playoff-bound Edmonton Oilers.
His performance with the Oilers, where he seized the No. 1 goaltending job after three others didn’t hold it, earned him the team’s nomination for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy on Wednesday.
The trophy is awarded annually to the NHL player who “best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” It is called after Minnesota North Stars forward Bill Masterton, who died following an on-ice injury in 1968.
The Oilers are one in all eight teams which have never won the award. Ingram won it in 2023-24 with Arizona after overcoming mental health struggles and tying for the league lead with six shutouts.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” the 29-year-old Saskatoon native said of this season’s journey. “I never heard of somebody not being invited to camp before. They put it in writing for me that they’d asked that I not attend camp.
“At that time, it was just, whatever got here next was what you were gonna take care of. And fortunately it was here in Edmonton and (general manager) Stan (Bowman) gave me a probability, and I’ll be perpetually grateful.”
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Ingram was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2016, but never played for them and was traded to Nashville in June 2019. He recorded his first NHL win Oct 24, 2021, nine months after entering the league’s player assistance program to take care of obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and alcoholism.
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In October 2022, he was claimed off waivers by Arizona and spent two seasons there before the franchise moved to Utah.
Ingram was traded to Edmonton last September and called up from Bakersfield on Dec. 19 when Tristan Jarry, newly acquired from Pittsburgh, was injured.
“There’s loads of things that occur in hockey that, as a human being, I understand,” he said of the Utah situation. “It’s while you get into the way you treat those who bothers me. I’m an athlete, but I’m still a human being, and that’s what brothered me greater than anything.”
The son of fogeys who were each teachers and first responders, Ingram struggled in Bakersfield, but credited the coaching staff there for giving him the possibility to resettle his life and profession.
“They never gave up on me. They kept letting me play,” he said of Bakersfield head coach Colin Chaulk and goaltending coach Kelly Guard. “A quote I all the time return to is, ‘sometimes all-time low’s an excellent place to construct a foundation.’ That’s what it was. No person told me to quit, so I just kept playing, and here we’re.
Ingram still deals with some mental health issues, but gets through those days with the assistance of his wife, Sarah, and straightforward walks.
“She sees it coming before I do most days,” Ingram said. “She takes care of me greater than a wife probably should. I’ll be perpetually grateful for every little thing she does for me.
“I am going for walks some days simply to get some sunlight, but I mean, there’s nothing that I can do this’ll snap me out of it immediately. There’s nobody fix for all of this.”
Regaining his position as a starting NHL goaltender helped restore his belief in himself.
“You’ve got to imagine in yourself,” he said. “There’s loads of outside noise. , are you able to, are you able to not? If you happen to imagine you’ll be able to, you’re gonna be just effective.”
The Masterton winner, which is voted on by members of the Skilled Hockey Writers Association, can be announced on the league’s annual awards celebration.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press