Oskar Lindblom Wins The 2021 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

On Tuesday evening, the National Hockey League announced that Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom was the recipient of the 2021 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The trophy is awarded by the league to the player that shows perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Lindblom was a finalist for the award alongside runners-up Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks and Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild.

In the team’s statement on his victory of the award, Lindblom said the following,

“I feel very, very honored and proud to win this award and to compete with these types of players like Matt Dumba and Patrick Marleau that are great players and great people on and off the ice. It’s very special for me. Just to be able to get back on the ice again was so, so good and I can’t say more than that. It was an awesome feeling to be back on the ice again… I would like to thank my family, my girlfriend, my whole team, the organization and especially the doctors and nurses who have been helping me along the way, and everyone else who have been with me the whole way. I just want to say a big thank you to all of you.”

Lindblom was awarded the trophy after overcoming his diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, to return to the ice. Lindblom was diagnosed with it in December of 2019 by specialists at the University of Pennsylvania while he was in the midst of a career season.

Lindblom received the last of his cancer treatments in July 2020 and was able to ring the bell that signified that he would not let the disease overcome his strength and will to play the game he loves and return to the amazing life he was destined to live.

He was able to join his teammates in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs bubble in Toronto to offer his support to the team and finally made his long-awaited return to the ice in Game 6 of Philadelphia’s Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the New York Islanders, a game in which the Flyers would win in double overtime thanks to Ivan Provorov to force a Game 7.

Lindblom was nominated for last year’s Masterton Trophy as well by the Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and was named a finalist for the award alongside Ottawa’s Bobby Ryan and Dallas’ Stephen Johns, with Ryan taking home the prize for courageously overcoming his addiction to return to playing hockey.

Lindblom came back this season and appeared in 50 of the Flyers’ 56 games, registering eight goals and six assists for 14 points in his first full season since 2018-19. Over the course of his entire NHL career so far, Lindblom, who was a 5th-round pick by Philadelphia in 2014, has recorded 38 goals and 33 assists for 71 points in 184 games.

Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher, on his young winger winning the award, stated,

“On behalf of the Philadelphia Flyers, I’d like to congratulate Oskar for this well-deserved honor given to him by the PHWA and the National Hockey League. Oskar is a young man that continues to impress us with his level of commitment and character. To go through what he went through and return to the team during our playoffs in the Toronto bubble shows an incredible amount of determination and courage. He followed that up by working extremely hard to prepare for a full season in which he had an immediate impact in our room and on the ice.”

Lindblöm is now the fourth Flyer in franchise history to win the Masterton Trophy, joining the likes of Bobby Clarke in 1972, Tim Kerr in 1989, and Ian Laperriere in 2011. Lindblom was able to persevere through an illness that no human should have to deal with, and despite the obstacles he faced in his challenge to defeat Ewing’s sarcoma, he completed his treatments and returned to the Flyers. Most importantly, he went back for a check-up in December of 2020 and his girlfriend revealed that he was still cancer-free.

It has been a remarkable journey for Oskar in his fight to return to hockey and normal life in general, and we are incredibly proud of him for the dedication and determination he has shown over the last two years, and we are incredibly grateful that he is healthy and that we get to see him play again. Congratulations, Oskar!