DENVER - The National Hockey League announced this evening that Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog was selected as the winner of both the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy and the Mark Messier Leadership Award for the 2025-26 season. Landeskog becomes the first player in NHL history to win both awards over his career, which also makes him the first ever to capture both in the same season.
The Masterton Trophy is awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. A $2,500 grant from the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) is awarded to the Bill Masterton Scholarship fund each year in the name of the winner. The Messier Award is given to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey.
Landeskog, 33, was nominated for the Masterton by the local chapters of the PHWA for his perseverance in returning to the Avalanche after missing the 2022-23 through 2024-25 regular seasons. In 2025-26, the Avalanche captain recorded 35 points (14g/21a) in 60 regular-season contests and added 11 points (6g/5a) over 13 Stanley Cup Playoff games to rank second on the team in goals. Colorado, which won the 2025-26 Presidents’ Trophy, compiled a 45-7-8 regular-season record when Landeskog dressed and a 10-9-3 record when he did not.
A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Landeskog completed his 14th season as the Avalanche’s team captain and is the third-longest tenured captain in the NHL behind Sidney Crosby (19 seasons) and Alex Ovechkin (17 seasons). He entered 2025-26 tied for the seventh-longest tenured captain in NHL history. In addition to his Avalanche leadership duties, Landeskog was the captain for Team Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, the first Olympics with NHL players since 2014. He chipped in four points (2g/2a) over five showings in Milan.
Off the ice, Landeskog’s community involvement included speaking at Kroenke Sports and Entertainment’s (KSE) Charity Brunch in March, spearheading the team’s annual hospital visit and hosting numerous local foundations through the Avalanche organization’s Community Ticket Pride program. Some of the foundations include, but are not limited to, the National Sports Center for the Disabled, Vitalant Blood Donations, Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC), and over 20 schools in the state of Colorado.
Landeskog played in Game 3 of the 2025 First Round (April 23, 2025) after not playing for 1,032 days since his last contest in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final (June 26, 2022) due to multiple knee surgeries. He's just the third captain ever to go over 1,000 days between NHL games along with Sid Abel (Detroit, 1,045 days) and Syl Apps (Toronto, 1,009).
Following the Avalanche capturing the Stanley Cup on June 26, 2022, Landeskog missed the entire 2022-23 season following knee surgery, then underwent cartilage transplant surgery on May 10, 2023 that cost him the entire 2023-24 campaign as well as all of the 2024-25 regular season. After years of rehabilitation, Landeskog appeared in two AHL games for the Colorado Eagles as a part of a conditioning stint on April 11-12, 2025. In five 2025 NHL playoff contests upon his return, Landeskog registered four points (1g/3a). Both times he found the scoresheet were multi-point outings that led to Avalanche victories. As part of Landeskog’s quest to return to the Avalanche’s lineup, the forward chronicled his rehab work in a six-part documentary series titled “A Clean Sheet.”
In addition to recovering from knee procedures, Landeskog had two separate stints of missing games due to injury in 2025-26. He was out of the lineup for 14 games due to an upper-body injury from Jan. 6 – Feb. 4 and seven more due to a lower-body injury from March 8-20.
Landeskog is the first player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to earn either award. The Masterton Trophy was established in 1967-68, and the Mark Messier Leadership Award debuted in 2006-07. Nominee suggestions for the latter are solicited from fans, clubs and NHL personnel, but the selection of the winner is chosen by Messier.
