Teammates Honor Laughton with Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy

The only Flyers team award voted upon by the players themselves, the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy honors the Flyers player who demonstrates the greatest improvement over the course of the season. This year, the Flyers players selected center/left winger Scott Laughton as the winner.

In the first season of a two-year contract, Laughton provided excellent value to the team. Despite missing 20 games due to injury (fractured finger in late October, groin issue in mid-December), Laughton had his best all-around season of his professional career.

The player, who turned 26 on May 30, showed his versatility in moving as needed between left wing and center. He played on the third (center or left wing), fourth (center), and even the second line (left wing) as needed. Laughton provided tenacious forechecking and backchecking work and is mainstay on the team's greatly improved penalty kill.

Offensively, Laughton established a new single-season career high with 13 goals despite the time lost due to injuries and the NHL's schedule pause. At the time the NHL season went into "pause" mode, he was within five points of tying his career-high in points (32) set last season over the course of 82 games.

The forward's 0.55 points per game was tops among Flyers players who primarily play in the bottom-six of the forward rotation at five-on-five. His 2.51 points per 60 minutes of ice time led all Flyers players who have dressed in 10 or more games this season. Overall, Laughton averaged 14:36 of ice time per game, including 1:42 of penalty killing time (third among Flyers forward behind only Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes).

Laughton also brought intangible value to the team. He got under opponents' skin as one of the resident chirpers, and helped keep teammates focused on the ice while setting an example with his work ethic. Back in training camp last September, Laughton approached every day as if he was a roster bubble player just trying to win a spot on the team, rather than like a guy with a guaranteed spot. He carried it right over to very strong regular season, despite some injuries.

Earlier this week, the Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association announced that Laughton won the 2019-20 Yanick Dupre Memorial Class Guy Award. Laughton has become one of the local media's go-to players after wins and losses alike. He's candid and honest in assessing both the team's performance and his own.

First dedicated in 1994, the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy commemorates the breakthrough 1984-85 season enjoyed by its namesake. That year, after a rough second season in the NHL, Lindbergh blossomed into superstardom as he won the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender and was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as one of the three most valuable players in the league. Laughton has become the 28th winner in the award's history. In 2001 and 2008, there were co-winners. In 2000-01, forward Simon Gagne and defenseman Dan McGillis tied in the balloting. The same thing happened with defenseman Braydon Coburn and forward Riley Cote during the 2007-08 season.

PELLE LINDBERGH MEMORIAL TROPHY HISTORY

1993-94 Mikael Renberg
1994-95 John LeClair
1995-96 Shjon Podein
1996-97 Trent Klatt
1997-98 Colin Forbes
1998-99 Daymond Langkow
1999-00 Luke Richardson
2000-01 Simon Gagne and Dan McGillis
2001-02 Justin Williams
2002-03 Donald Brashear
2003-04 Robert Esche
2005-06 Joni Pitkanen
2006-07 Ben Eager
2007-08 Braydon Coburn and Riley Cote
2008-09 Darroll Powe
2009-10 Matt Carle
2010-11 Andreas Nodl
2011-12 Scott Hartnell
2012-13 Jakub Voracek
2013-14 Michael Raffl
2014-15 Chris VandeVelde
2015-16 Brayden Schenn
2016-17 Radko Gudas
2017-18 Sean Couturier
2018-19 Travis Sanheim
2019-20 Scott Laughton