Everyone knows by now how far the Flyers have fought and clawed all season. From the first drop of the puck season, his team has given max effort on most nights. Now they may be on the brink of the playoffs if everything goes according to plan. Now let’s see our guesses for the team awards that will be handed out tonight before the game.
MVP (Bobby Clarke Trophy)- Travis Konecny
Best Defenseman (Barry Ashbee)- Travis Sanheim, honorable mention Cam York
Nice Guy/Class Act (Yanick Dupre)- Noah Cates
Most Improved (Pelle Lindbergh)- Sean Couturier, honorable mentions Cam York and Travis Sanheim
Most Heart (Gene Hart)- Samuel Ersson
Flyers Alumni Community Leadership Award- Scott Laughton
Toyota Cup Winner- Travis Konecny
Samuel Ersson
The young 24-year-old, 6’2 194 pound, Samuel Ersson has been the Flyers most steadiest and reliable Goaltender this season. He became thrusted into the Flyers number one netminder, after Carter Hart left due to his alleged role in a sexual assault in 2018 involving members for the Hockey Canada team. This has been a transition year for the Flyers in terms of using a lot more younger players in areas that ordinarily would be held by vets, but Ersson fared well for the most part. He did all he could with the team in front of him, even when he was gassed and tired. Ersson just went about the day like business as usual.
He just wants to win as many games as possible. Ersson wears his heart on his sleeve, and performs to the best of his abilities.
“I think he’s handled himself so well this year,” John Tortorella said of Ersson. “I’ve played the hell out of him. He’s tired.”
“We still believe we’re in this thing and we’re going to do whatever we can to make a push,” Samuel Ersson said.
Noah Cates
Cates should win the nice guy award. It is a well-deserved one for Cates. He doesn’t take many penalties, and Cates rarely places his team in a bad positio.
Cates hosted local youth hockey players as his guests throughout the course of the 2023-2024 season. A player was nominated for a variety of reasons: overcoming significant obstacles, committing themselves to community service, or providing on and off ice leadership to their teammates and others. Cates keep them tickets, and also did a meet and greet with each of these players following the games. Many people didn’t know about this, but Cates is a big advocate off the ice in terms of community service.
Scott Laughton
Of course, the only person wearing a letter for a large part of the season for the Flyers would win an award. Laughton is always at the forefront answering questions for his teammates, and he is always there for his teammates.
Laughton is one of Tortorella’s go-to’s when he wants to get a message across. Some could peg him to be the next captain of the Flyers whenever that may be. He’s been everything on and off the ice.
“As far as Laughts’ game, I don’t need to explain it to you guys,” Tortorella said earlier in the year. “He leaves it on the ice all the time. You can tell the spots I’m putting him in, we depend on him. Does he make mistakes? Yeah, but I’m going to go with him. I have a good feeling of who he is. He’s done some really good things for us.”
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