Claude Giroux Named Hart Trophy Finalist

Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen

The Philadelphia Flyers captain, Claude Giroux, has been named  a finalist for the Hart Trophy.  The Hart Trophy is given to the league’s most valuable player.

Giroux finished the season with 86 points, which was third best in the NHL, behind Sidney Crosby and Ryan Getzlaf.  Crosby and Getzlaf were the other two players nominated for the award.

Giroux tied a career high with 28 goals and had 58 assists on the season.  The center had zero goals and only seven assists through the first 15 games, but then he started to pile up the points.  In the last 67 games, he had 28 goals and 51 assists for 79 of his 86 total points.

It seemed that as Giroux went so did the Flyers season.  He struggled in the beginning of the season, and so did the team, going 1-7-0 in their first eight games.  As Giroux started to pile up the points, the Flyers started to become the playoff team everyone thought they would be.

He would lead his team to the playoffs, where he had six points in seven games against the New York Rangers.  The Rangers would go on to beat the Flyers in seven games.

The centers has 119 goals, 258 assists, and 377 points in 415 career games.  In 57 playoffs games, he has 23 goals, 38 assists and 61 points.

Giroux is the fifth Flyers player to be named a finalist for the Hart Trophy, according to the Flyers public relations department.  Bobby Clarke won the award three times (1973, 1975, and 1976) and Eric Lindros won the award in 1995.  Pelle Lindberg and Bernie Parent were the two other Flyers to have been nominated.

Giroux finished fourth in the Hart Trophy voting in the 2011-12 season after finishing with 28 goals and 65 assists for 93 points.

The Flyers 2006 first round draft pick has certainly come a long way in his six years in the league.