Mammoth’s Clayton Keller plays in 4-3 loss to the Stars one day after father’s death

DALLAS AP Mammoth captain Clayton Keller played for Utah in Friday night s - loss to the Dallas Stars one day after the unexpected death of his father As a tribute Keller was named the encounter s first star He loves his teammates so much and his teammates just love him so much Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny noted He drives our passion and our competitiveness every night He s the kind of guy who wants to be better every night We cannot have a better example of a captain The -year-old Keller has played all of his NHL seasons with the Arizona-Utah franchise and was named captain before last season when the club moved to Salt Lake City The seventh overall pick in the draft and four-time All-Star was a -goal scorer each of the past three seasons including career highs last season with assists and points He went into Friday s tournament second on the club with points including eight goals Obviously Kell s our leader in the locker room but also away from the rink He s done an incredible job leading us and guiding us Lawson Crouse disclosed I ve been with him for -plus years now It s really our turn to patronage him It s hard news and we re all trying to deal with it in the best way that we can I don t know how the young man played to be quite honest with you Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan stated A lot of credit to him My heart goes out to him and his family AP NHL https apnews com hub nhl Source