Lightning's Foster is back strong following broken leg

Two years ago, Lightning defenseman Kurtis Foster wasn't sure if he'd be able to walk normal again, let alone skate.

Yet, in his first full season back in the NHL following a severely broken left leg, Foster might be playing the best hockey of his professional life with career highs in games played (68), assists (31) and points (39) in his first season with Tampa Bay.

For his comeback season, Foster earned the nomination for the Bill Masterton Trophy by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Professional Hockey Writer's Association. The Masteron is awarded to the player who best exemplifies "perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey'' with the PHWA voting on the winner after each team nominates a player. Foster was nominated last season, when the 28-year-old made it back to the ice to play in 10 games for the Minnesota Wild at the end of the season. Though he was honored to be nominated last season, he feels this year it's a more rewarding nomination.

"I feel with only 10 games to show everybody how I was, I didn't really get the chance to show everybody that I was really healed,'' Foster said. "This year, just to be able to come back and play a full season, play the most games I've played in a year, knock on wood I've been pretty healthy, it's just kind of satisfying with all the hard work I put in has got me right to where I wanted to be, back to where I thought I would be.''

Foster underwent surgery on March 20, 2008, the morning after his left femur was shattered after he was pushed into the end boards by San Jose's Torrey Mitchell while the two were chasing down an icing call. It took him nearly a year of rehabilitation to get back on the ice, which he did for the first time in a conditioning assignment with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League on Feb. 8, 2009. He returned to the NHL on March 7, 2009.

But even though he returned to the ice last season, this year he feels he is back.

"This year I feel like I didn't just play, I felt that I got better as the year went on and I started to bring more to the game, learn more,'' he said. "I think I've become a better player as the year went on and I think that's when you are up for a trophy like that and you know where you've been, it's kind of like you are still climbing the mountain and you haven't reached the peak yet.''

Coming off the injury and entering this season as an unknown, Foster has exceeded expectations and easily tops the Tampa Bay blue line in points, with rookie Victor Hedman the next closest among defensemen with 20 points. Foster, who signed a one-year contract worth $600,000 with Tampa Bay, is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

"I think that if we had said at the start of the season that he'd be a big part of our power play and he's going to get 40 points, I think we would have taken it for a guy coming off that injury,'' Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "I think next year is a big year for him in the sense that he has to get that mental block and chip away at it, which I think he will be able to do. He's a really great kid, he really wants to play, he really wants to learn and I like him a lot because he does want to learn, he listens and he tries.''