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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Hockey Club goalie Connor Ingram has re-entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, the league and players union announced Sunday.
Ingram will be away from the team indefinitely while he receives care.
"For those of you that don't know, earlier this season I lost my mother to breast cancer," Ingram said in a message on social media. "After trying to make a return to playing, I have come to realize that I am not myself. At this point in my life I need to put my health first, and take the proper time I need away to come back at 100%."
Ingram was away from the team for nearly two months earlier this season, dealing with the death of his mother, Joni.
Near the end of November, Ingram could sense the worst was coming. His mother had grown "really sick" and he asked for time off from the club to be with her and his family. In early December, the worst came as his mother passed away.
"I took time off to grieve," he told reporters when he got back to the club. "I wasn't handling it well, so that's why I was gone."
He returned to the ice on Jan. 11, playing in nine games while recording a 3-4-1 record with a .897 save percentage.
Those aren't the numbers he had grown accustomed to putting up as he worked his way to being a full-time NHL player.
In all, Ingram has struggled in the organization's first year in Utah. He's lost 12 of his 22 starts and has recorded a 3.27 goals-against average. He entered the season as the team's No. 1 goalie, a position he has now ceded to Karel Vejmelka, who just signed a five-year extension.
"For Ingy, we're supporting him. All of our heart is with him," head coach André Tourigny said. "We hope the best for him and we just hope everything will go well for him."
The team has called up Jaxon Stauber, who had the team's first-ever shutout earlier this season, in Ingram's absence.
This is the second time Ingram has spent time in the program. In 2021, he entered the program to help with his undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, which led to excessive drinking to help deal with anxiety and depression.
Ingram won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 2024 for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey due to his accomplishments on the ice after going through the program.
"At the end of the day, if none of you guys remember how I play but one of you got your kids in therapy, we might save a life along the way," he said when he was named a finalist for the award last spring.
Now, he's asking for help from the program again and hoping the same positives can come out of it.
"Though many view the program as a resource for substance abuse, I want to recognize all that they do," he said. "I am once again privileged to have access to their network of world-class health professionals to hopefully avoid long-term negative effects of putting your health second. With the program's assistance I look forward to getting the medical help I need and returning to a happy and healthy life."
