Devils’ King Clancy Trophy Nominee is Schneider

The King Clancy Memorial Trophy awarded by the NHL goes to a “player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to his community.” Each NHL club nominates a player and this year the Devils have nominated goaltender Cory Schneider.

Despite, or maybe because of, his struggles this season, we saw the best of Schneider’s leadership qualities. When he lost the starting job to Keith Kinkaid, he remained positive and a team guy through and through. Guys on the team talked about how it can affect things if a star goalie like Cory begins to sulk or pout after losing his goal to his backup. But Cory stayed positive and knew it was on him to earn it back, which he did in the playoffs.

But beyond that, Cory also does a lot for the community. He is an advocate of adopting pets from shelters and he and his wife both support the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City. They have done a lot of work in getting them to Prudential Center so that fans can adopt pets and in just raising money for them through other means as well.

He also runs “Cory’s Keepers” a program designed to help promote education among under privileged kids in the Newark area that also rewards them by getting them to Devils games as Cory’s guest.

The KIng Clancy Trophy finalists will be named on Monday, April 30 according to the press release on NHL.com. There will be three finalists chosen for the award which will be given out on June 20 at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.

The winner is “selected by a committee of senior NHL executives led by Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.” The criteria, according to the press release, for choosing the finalists and winner is: investment of time and resources, commitment to a particular cause or community, creativity of programming, use of influence; engagement of others and measurement of impact.

The winner will also “receive a $40,000 donation from the National Hockey League Foundation to benefit a charity or charities of the winner’s choice.” The two runners up will receive $5,000 from the same source for the same purpose.

The press release also noted that “NHL Foundation Player Award is being discontinued, and the associated NHL Foundation charitable donation will be provided through the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.”

The King Clancy Trophy was first awarded in 1988 by the NHL Board of Governors. It is named for Frank “King” Clancy, who served the NHL “as a player, referee, coach, manager and goodwill ambassador.”

No Devils player has ever won this award.

Congratulations to Cory Schneider on this well-deserved honor!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *