DALLAS — Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller performed in Friday evening’s 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, someday after the surprising dying of his father.
As a tribute, Keller was named the sport’s first star.
“He loves his teammates a lot, and his teammates simply love him a lot,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny stated. “He drives our ardour and our competitiveness each evening. He is the sort of man who desires to be higher each evening. We can not have a greater instance of a captain.”
The 27-year-old Keller has performed all 10 of his NHL seasons with the Arizona-Utah franchise and was named captain earlier than final season, when the membership moved to Salt Lake Metropolis. The No. 7 choose within the 2016 draft and four-time All-Star was a 30-goal scorer every of the previous three seasons, together with profession highs final season with 60 assists and 90 factors.
He went into Friday’s recreation second on the membership with 21 factors, together with eight objectives.
“Clearly, Kell’s our chief within the locker room but in addition away from the rink. He is performed an unbelievable job main us and guiding us,” Utah’s Lawson Crouse stated. “I have been with him for 10-plus years now. It is actually our flip to help him. It is exhausting information, and we’re all making an attempt to cope with it in one of the simplest ways that we will.”
Stated Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan:. “I do not understand how the younger man performed, to be fairly sincere with you. Plenty of credit score to him. My coronary heart goes out to him and his household.”