By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
With the regular season officially over, the Flyers started to hand out team awards, usually reserved for the final home game of the regular season, throughout the course of the week.
Last week, it was announced that Travis Konecny won the Toyota Cup, the award given for most ‘3 Stars’ points. The other team awards were revealed this week.
The Gene Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player with the most “heart” as voted on by the Flyers Fan Club, was given to Kevin Hayes. Hayes was acquired last offseason and signed to a seven-year deal. His first season with the Flyers was on track to be one of the best in his career, finishing with 23 goals, two shy of his career high, and 41 points in 69 games.
The Yanick Dupre Class Guy Award, given to the player that displays character and carries himself with dignity and respect as voted on by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, was awarded to Scott Laughton. Laughton was also awarded the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy as the most improved player as voted on by his teammates. Laughton played in just 49 games this season due to injury, but set a new career high with 13 goals and also reaching 27 points, just five shy of his career high. Laughton also went from being a minus-11 last season to a plus-13 this season.
The final two awards were the two biggest ones for the team. The Barry Ashbee Trophy goes to the team’s best defenseman. For the second time in four seasons, Ivan Provorov was given the award. It’s no surprise that Provorov took it home. His 13 goals and 36 points were approaching career-high marks with 13 games still remaining on the schedule. Once again, Provorov didn’t miss a game during the season and saw another increase in ice time, becoming the Flyers go-to defenseman in all situations. His seven power-play goals were also tops in the NHL among defensemen.
Finally, the Bobby Clarke Trophy, which is presented to the team MVP, was awarded to Sean Couturier. Again, this was no surprise. Couturier has continued to emerge as an elite defensive forward in the NHL. Offensively, he has become a consistent producer. While playing in all 69 games for the team this season, Couturier scored 22 goals and 59 points. While it remained to be seen if Couturier reached the 30-goal mark for the third straight season, he was very likely to achieve another 70-point season.
Around the rest of the NHL, the wait is on for the return of hockey. The full membership vote of the NHLPA will conclude on Friday and the Board of Governors vote is expected to take place on Friday as well. An announcement of the voting in favor of return to play and ratifying the new CBA is expected on Friday evening, which would set everything in motion for Phase 3 to begin on Monday as scheduled.
