How nominees for a pro sports award showcase Notre Dame values
Once a Notre Dame man, always a Notre Dame man.
Every year, the NHL awards the King Clancy Memorial Trophy to the player who “best exemplifies leadership qualities on the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.” The nominees for each team are selected by the teams themselves.
There are 32 teams in the NHL. Three of those teams’ nominees attended Notre Dame.
Cal Petersen of the Los Angeles Kings, Anders Lee of the New York Islanders and Bryan Rust of the Pittsburgh Penguins are all up for the award. The winner will be chosen by a committee of senior NHL executives led by Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.
Petersen has been an outspoken proponent of the October Saves Goalie Challenge, a charitable organization that asks goalies to gather pledges from family, friends and teammates for every save made in the month of October. The donations go to a long list of beneficiaries including Stand Up to Cancer and The Pink Fund.
“Hopefully we can get some saves going in October and help everybody affected by cancer because we all are at some point in our lives,” Petersen said last Oct. 1.
Notre Dame football
Lee, a former Notre Dame team captain, saw a video of a 15-year-old cancer patient in 2016. Ever since, he’s been dedicated to the pediatric cancer cause. He teamed up with the “Jam Kancer in the Kan” organization. His first annual Anders Lee Kancer Jam raised over $103,000 after an Islanders game on March 18, 2017.
The cancer patient that moved Lee to get involved, Fenov Pieree-Louis, died on July 18, 2018. His spirit lives on through Lee and everyone else dedicated to curing cancer.
“When I met Fenov, I became a better person, a better friend, a better son, a better husband,” Lee said at Pierre-Louis’ funeral. “I had a purpose.”
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Rust competed with Penguins teammate Jason Zucker in “The Mustache Faceoff” last November. They urged fans to pick whose mustache was better while donating to two charities, Movember — the leading charity changing the face of men’s health, focusing on mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer — and the Mario Lemieux Foundation, which is “dedicated to cancer research, patient care & Austin’s Playrooms, which creates playrooms for children & families in medical facilities.”
Petersen played in 37 games with 35 starts this season. He went 20-14-2. He posted a save percentage of .895 and a goals against average of 2.89. Petersen was rock solid in three seasons at Notre Dame (2014-17), never posting a save percentage lower than .919 or a GAA worse than 2.51. He’s backing up Jonathan Quick in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Lee scored a staggering 61 goals and 116 points in three seasons at Notre Dame (2010-13). He scored 28 goals and recorded 46 points for the Islanders this season.
Rust totaled a career-high 58 points in just 60 games for the Penguins. He scored a goal and had two assists in Pittsburgh’s triple overtime victory over the New York Rangers in Tuesday’s opening game of the first round. Rust scored 43 goals and tallied 97 points in four seasons at Notre Dame (2010-14).
