Zetterberg Given NHL Foundation Player Award

The National Hockey League announced on Friday that Detroit Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg was awarded the NHL Foundation Player Award for the 2013 season.

The award recognizes the player “who applies the core values of hockey – commitment, perseverance and teamwork – to enrich the lives of people in his community.”

Zetterberg received the award for his work locally in Metro Detroit and for international efforts in Ethiopia, Guatemala and Nepal.

In Detroit, Zetterberg serves as the team spokesman for the Red Wings’ annual Smoke Detector Collection and personally matches all donations to the fund.

In Ethiopia, Zetterberg and his wife, Emma, build the Chige Primary School in Kemba with Action Aid Ethiopia. He also funded an addition to the Belta Telo Middle School that will help it double in size. The Zetterbergs also support programs n Ethiopia and Guatemala that allow participants to work themselves out of poverty. The Zetterberg Foundation has financed and built six houses in Nepal for former debt slaves.

Zetterberg joins Darren McCarty as the only Red Wings to have been given the NHL Foundation Player Award. Detroit is just the second team to have had two winners, joining the Buffalo Sabres.

---

Pavel Datsyuk finished third in voting for the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. Chicago’s Jonathan Toews won the award, edging out Boston’s Patrice Bergeron.