Giroux's Iconic Flyers Impact

The longest-reigning captain in the history of the Philadelphia Flyers, Claude Giroux is a five-time winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the Flyers' Most Valuable Player. He's second in franchise history in points (900) and assists (609). He's eighth in goals (291). He's been a Hart Trophy finalist for NHL MVP (2013-14) and a fourth-place finisher in 2017-18.

Giroux is one of six players in the Flyers' 100-point club for a season: Mark Recchi, Clarke, Bill Barber, Eric Lindros, Giroux (2017-18) and Rick MacLeish. He's played in seven NHL All-Star Games, winning the MVP award in 2022.

For his playoff career, Giroux has posted 73 points (25g, 48a) in 85 career games to rank sixth in franchise history in points and 10th in points-per-game (0.86). In the playoff points-per-game category, he actually ranks just behind Clarke (0.88), and ahead of the likes of Barber (0.84), Mike Richards (0.79), and Reggie Leach (0.76).

As a second-year NHLer, Giroux was a big part of the Flyers' drive to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. He scored a vital shootout goal in the 2009-10 regular season finale that propelled the team over the New York Rangers into the playoffs. In the postseason, he contributed 21 points in 23 games, including the overtime winning goal of Game 3 of the Cup Final against Chicago.

In 2011, Giroux compiled 12 points in 11 playoff games. The next year, Giroux played the series of his life as the Flyers toppled the highly favored Pittsburgh in six games in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Giroux racked up six goals and eight assists for 14 points in the series.

In Game 3 of that series, Giroux dropped the gloves with Penguins counterpart Sidney Crosby. In the opening shift of Game 6, he produced one of the most memorable shifts in recent franchise playoff history as he rocked Crosby with a heavy, clean hit and capped it off by scoring the first goal of Philly's 5-1 victory. Giroux also collected two assists in that game.

Even as the Flyers went down to defeat in seven games to the New York Rangers in the 2014 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Giroux was one of the key reasons the series went to the limit. Apart from compiling six points in the seven games, Giroux won 56.5 percent of his faceoffs in the series and pulled an average 19:24 per game of ice time.

There is more to Giroux than just scoring stats. He is one of the team's hardest workers on a day-in and day-out basis at practice. Giroux prefers to leads through positivity and friendly needling rather than a fire-and-brimstone approach but is himself an ultra-competitive individual.

Back in 2017, when former head coach Dave Hakstol asked Giroux -- a longtime All-Star enter -- if he'd consider moving to left wing, the captain immediately embraced the idea for the good of the team and responded with a career-best 102 points. In the years since then, whenever asked, he's moved back to center when the Flyers have been caught short down the middle but has come to prefer playing left wing.

In 2019, under then-head coach Alain Vigneault, Giroux willingly sacrificed some points (53 points in 69 games before the pandemic-driven pause) to be of the leaders in ensuring team-wide buy-in to the 200-foot, high-tempo style that Vigneault demanded. To this day, Giroux remains one of the elite faceoff men in the NHL.

Above all, Giroux is universally respected among Flyers teammates, both past and present. He makes rookies and new acquisitions feel welcomed and included. He has a high pain threshold, playing through injuries that would sideline other players. Most of all, Giroux has taken pride in representing the Philadelphia Flyers and building, day-by-day, a 1,000-game legacy.