Ted Lindsay Award


The Ted Lindsay Award, formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson Award, is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's most outstanding player in the regular season as judged by the members of the NHL Players' Association. First awarded 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 in 2010 after Ted Lindsay of the Detroit Red Wings.

History

The award was first handed out at the conclusion of the 1970–71 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 ten winners, followed by the Edmonton Oilers, with eight winners. The Lindsay Award is considered to be the companion of the Hart Memorial Trophy—sixteen players have won both trophies for the same season: Guy Lafleur, Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Brett Hull, Sergei Fedorov, Eric Lindros, Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Sakic, Martin St. Louis, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Carey Price, Patrick Kane, Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov. Of those seventeen, only Lafleur, Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, St. Louis, Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Kane, McDavid and Kucherov have also won the Art Ross Trophy for the same season and completed a Hart-Pearson/Lindsay-Art Ross sweep, . Of that list, only Ovechkin has also won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for top goal-scorer in the same year, completing what is to date the only Hart-Pearson-Art Ross-Richard sweep. Had the Richard Trophy existed formally during the years they completed their Hart-Pearson-Art Ross sweeps, however, Lafleur would have achieved the four-award sweep once, Lemieux twice, and Gretzky five times.

Winners

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