Rangers’ Adam Fox named recipient of 2023-24 Rod Gilbert ‘Mr. Ranger’ award
During the 2021-22 season, the Rangers created the “Mr. Ranger” award in honor of legend Rod Gilbert, who played his entire career with the organization.
The 18-year right winger was beloved by fans everywhere, as he's the all-time leading scorer in franchise history, and he perfectly exemplified what it meant to be a Ranger both on and off the ice.
After Gilbert passed away in Aug. 2021 at the age of 80, the organization decided to create the award to help keep his legacy going.
The award is presented to the Rangers player “who best honors Rod's legacy by exemplifying leadership qualities both on and off the ice, and making a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.”
The longest-tenured Ranger, Chris Kreider, took home the inaugural award followed by captain Jacob Trouba last season.
This year’s winner, defenseman Adam Fox, was announced by Gilbert’s wife and Rangers legend Adam Graves during a pregame ceremony prior to Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"It's a huge honor," Fox said during MSG's intermission report. "Being from here you understand some names and what they mean. Rod was a little before my time in terms of my playing, but in terms of what he meant to the community and how much he did for fans and the city of New York, it's special to be mentioned with his name."
The 26-year-old is in the midst of another outstanding season leading the Blueshirts' blueline on both ends of the ice as he joined Brian Leech as the only defenseman in franchise history to reach the 70-point mark three times and he currently ranks seventh on the team with a career-high 16 goals.
The Jericho, NY native has also been very involved off the ice with Tackle ALS and the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
