Across the NHL this morning, all 32 teams had a player nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Selected by each city's chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, players are nominated based on those who "best exemplify the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey."

For the Carolina chapter, the nominee this season was goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Andersen was diagnosed with a blood-clotting issue, later revealed as deep-vein thrombosis with subsequent pulmonary embolisms in early November of this season.

"It was a scary time," Andersen said.

During those first few days, there were a lot of doubts and fears swirling in the veteran goalie's mind about his health and if he would ever even be able to lace up his skates again.

But after many meetings and consultations with various doctors and medical experts and a positive response to his medication, a path opened up.

Andersen slowly began to build back into shape. He recalled how he treated that time like it was the offseason and approached his workouts as such.

"I knew it was going to be a few months and I just tried to stay as ready as possible even though I wasn't on the ice as much," Andersen said. "The second I got the go-ahead to be on the ice, I was out there trying to get my feet back under me again."

After three months, Andersen was cleared to return to the ice and within a month of on-ice practices, Andersen was back under the lights at PNC Arena, listening to the crowd cheer his name once again.

"It was awesome," Andersen said about that moment. "[The fans] didn't disappoint."

In his eight games since returning, Andersen is 7-1-0 with a 0.949 save percentage, a 1.375 goals against average and he has two shutouts. 

It's been an absolutely dominant run for the Danish netminder and it went from a question mark to almost a guarantee that he'll be called upon in the playoffs this year.

Andersen's commitment to the game and his desire to return has fueled not only himself but his team as well.

"It's just... You know, it's Freddie," said Sebastian Aho when asked if he was surprised by how good his goaltender had been. "I've seen him do this stuff over and over and the whole team obviously trusts him a lot, but you never know. You were almost a little nervous for him. After that long of an injury you hope to see him have a good start, which he obviously had and ever since then, he hasn't looked back. He's looked very calm as always actually. It's huge for us. He's one of the best goalies in the world, so happy to have him."

"I know that if what he was going through happened to me, it would be really tough to go through," said Brady Skjei. "The fact that he's back playing and playing solid... we're just obviously really happy that he's part of the team and back at full health."

The perseverance Andersen's shown in the face of a truly terrifying situation is inspiring. His condition is something he'll never truly be rid of and he'll carry it with him for the rest of his life, but he's is not hiding from it. Andersen's chosen to march onward despite it.

"You can never predict what can happen, but I can be happy about being back," Andersen said. "Just taking it one day at a time."