The Ted Lindsay Award (formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson Award) is awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL)'s most outstanding player in the regular season as judged by the members of the NHL Players Association.
It has been awarded 42 times to 24 different players since its beginnings in 1971.
It is a companion to the Hart Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the League's Most Valuable Player as judged by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.
The award was renamed for Detroit Red Wings great Ted Lindsay officially announced on April 29, 2010.
History[]
The award was first handed out at the conclusion of the 1971–72 NHL season. It was named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, who was Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968, the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize and a former player and coach for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's ice hockey team.
On April 29, 2010, the National Hockey League Players' Association announced that the award would be reintroduced as the Ted Lindsay Award to honor Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay for his skill, tenacity, leadership, and role in establishing the original Players' Association.
The voting for the trophy is conducted at the end of the regular season by the members of the NHL Players Association.
Wayne Gretzky won the award five times during his career. Members of the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the award the most number of times with eight winners (followed by the Edmonton Oilers) with six winners.
The Lindsay Award is considered to be the companion of the Hart Memorial Trophy—fourteen players have won both trophies for the same season: Guy Lafleur (1976–77 and 1977–78), Wayne Gretzky (1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85 and 1986–87), Mario Lemieux (1987–88 and 1992–93 and 1995–96), Mark Messier (1989–90 and 1991–92), Brett Hull (1990–91), Sergei Fedorov (1993–94), Eric Lindros (1994–95), Dominik Hasek (1996–97 and 1997–98), Jaromir Jagr (1998–99), Joe Sakic (2000–01), Martin St. Louis (2003–04), Sidney Crosby (2006–07), Alexander Ovechkin (2007–08 and 2008–09) and Evgeni Malkin (2011–12).
Of those fourteen, only Lafleur, Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, St. Louis, Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin have also won the Art Ross Trophy for the same season and completed a Hart-Pearson-Art Ross sweep.
Of that list, only Ovechkin has also won the Rocket Richard Trophy for top scorer in the same year, completing what is to date the only Hart-Pearson-Art Ross-Richard sweep.
However, it is worth noting that, had the Richard Trophy existed during the years they completed their Hart-Pearson-Art Ross sweeps, Lafleur would have achieved the four-award sweep once (1977–78), Lemieux would have done so twice (1987–88 and 1995–96) and Gretzky would have accomplished it five times (1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85 and 1986–87).
Lester B. Pearson\Ted Lindsay Award Winners[]
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