The Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) announced today they have nominated Flyers center, Sean Couturier, for the 2023-24 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually under the trusteeship of the PHWA and is given to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.
Couturier, 31 (12/7/92), owns 36 points (11-25=36) in 70 games this season after missing the entire 2022-23 NHL season due to an upper-body injury. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound center was named the 20th captain in team history on Feb. 14. He ranks T-1st in the NHL in game-deciding goals (2) and T-5th in shootout goals (3). He ranks T-3rd on the Flyers in game-winning goals (3), T-6th in power-play points (7) and seventh in scoring. The left-shot forward tallied his 300th career NHL assist on Jan. 18 vs. DAL, logged a season-high 20 faceoff wins on Dec. 28 at VAN, recorded a season-high six-game point streak from Nov. 30-Dec. 12 (2-5=7) and registered a season-high eight shots on Nov. 22 at NYI.
Couturier has 496 points (191-305=496) in 791 career NHL games, all with Philadelphia, in 12 seasons (2011-24). He ranks T-1st in team history in game-deciding goals (9), second in faceoff wins (6,183), third in shootout goals (14), fourth in games played, 11th in shots (1,759), 14th in assists, 15th in GWG (33), 16th in points and 17th in goals. Couturier won the 2020 NHL Frank J. Selke Trophy, is a three-time Bobby Clarke Trophy winner (2018-21), the 2017-18 Yanick Dupre Class Guy Memorial Award and Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy winner and a three-time Gene Hart Memorial Award winner (2017-19; 2020-21). He was selected by the Flyers in the first round (eighth overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft.
The PHWA chapter in each market of the 32 NHL clubs nominates one player from that team to be considered for the Masterton. The three finalists, and ultimately the winner, are selected by a poll among the 32 chapters of the PHWA at the end of the regular season and is revealed during the NHL Awards Show.
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy was presented by the NHL Writers' Association in 1968 to commemorate the late Bill Masterton, a player with the Minnesota North Stars, who exhibited to a high degree the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, and who died January 15, 1968.
The Philadelphia Flyers have had four winners of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Bobby Clarke (1971-72), Tim Kerr (1988-89), Ian Laperriere (2010-11) and Oskar Lindblom (2020-21).
Most recent Flyers nominees by the PHWA for the Masterton are:
2022-23: Nick Seeler
2021-22: Kevin Hayes (finalist)
2020-21: Oskar Lindblom (winner)
2019-20: Oskar Lindblom (finalist)
2018-19: Brian Elliott
2017-18: Claude Giroux
2016-17: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
2015-16: Shayne Gostisbehere
