Sharks’ Justin Bailey Deserving of Masterton Nomination – The Hockey Writers – San Jose Sharks

On Friday, the San Jose Sharks announced their candidate for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is “awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.” While their nominee, Justin Bailey, likely isn’t a favorite to win the award given the hardships some others have experienced over the course of the season, he’s certainly deserving of the nomination even though many fans around the league likely aren’t familiar with his story. 

Bailey’s Backstory

To fully examine Bailey’s story, you have to start with his draft year. He was a second-round pick during the 2013 NHL Draft, selected by his hometown team the Buffalo Sabres. As a big power forward there were a lot of hopes surrounding him. He spent a couple more seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) as a member of the Kitchener Rangers and eventually the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds before finally making his professional debut with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (AHL) during the 2015-16 season. He played well in the AHL, well enough to get recalled to make his NHL debut during the same season. Unfortunately, he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity and failed to record a point in eight games with the Sabres.

It took until the following season, 2016-17, for Bailey to record his first NHL point. He only recorded four points in 32 games though so he spent some time in the AHL once again. This became the norm for his time with the Sabres, he was a phenomenal AHL-level player, but couldn’t seem to make it work in the NHL. During the 2018-19 season, the Sabres traded Bailey to the Philadelphia Flyers for a player in a similar situation, Taylor Leier. This is where both players went in massively different directions though. Leier got an opportunity in the AHL with the Americans, but after a season and a half with no chances at the NHL level, he left North America and has been playing in Europe ever since.

Bailey played a few games at the NHL level with the Flyers, but once again failed to find his footing. He was determined to make it work though. He signed a one-year two-way contract with the Vancouver Canucks on July 4, 2019, and played 19 games with the Canucks over the next three seasons, with most of his time spent as a member of the Utica Comets and Abbotsford Canucks of the AHL. His final game at the…