It’s that time of year again! The Brotherly Puck Awards are here! All members of the Brotherly Puck and Brotherly Pod staff were given a vote, and from those results Twitter polls were crafted so you, the Brotherly Puck fans, could weigh in too!
Mike Knuble Most Improved Player Award
Staff Vote- Joel Farabee
Fan Vote- Joel Farabee
This wasn’t quite unanimous, but it was close. Farabee ran away with both the staff and fan votes, and quite frankly, he deserved to. Farabee’s sophomore season was one for the record books, literally, as he became the second youngest Flyer in history to produce a 20-goal season. His 20 goals and 38 points in 55 games were good enough for first and fifth on the team respectively and a significant step up from his eight-goal, 21-point rookie season last year. Even though he went through a bit of a lull through much of April, overall it’s a positive step forward for the 21-year-old forward and a season he can build off of in 2021-22.
Kimmo Timonen MVP Award
Staff Vote- Claude Giroux
Fan Vote- Claude Giroux
It may be hard to pick the most valuable player on a team that was as bad as the Flyers, but Claude Giroux was able to flex his muscles and put the team in his back many times this season. He registered a respectable 16 goals and 43 points, which was tied for the team lead. Giroux has been simply ageless so far in his career, and at 33, he’s still playing at a high level. Maybe someone will grab that torch some day, but until that happens, the Philadelphia Flyers are still in good hands with Claude Giroux.
Simon Gagne Offensive Player of the Year
Staff Vote- Joel Farabee
Fan Vote- Joel Farabee
This was close in the voting, though Farabee was able to edge out the competition and snag his first offensive player of the year award. Considering Joel Farabee has yet to play in a full 82-game season, he is blazing his own path and overcoming the development hurdles that he and the rest of the league are facing. He posted his first 20-goal season, which led the team. There’s certainly a good chance this won’t be the last time you’ll see Farabee claim this award.
Samuel Morin Defensive Player of the Year
Staff Vote- Sean Couturier
Fan Vote- Sean Couturier
This is the first time the defensive player of the year award went to a forward, mainly because none of the defenseman deserved it this season. Sean Couturier is the NHL’s reigning Selke Trophy winner and put his two-way skills on display once again during the 2021 season. He missed much of the early part of the season with a rib injury and his presence was definitely missed during his absence. Even though he played injured during the back half of the campaign, he still was one of the only players that showed even a shred of defensive awareness on the team this season.
Steve Mason Goaltender of the Year
Staff Vote- Shayne Gostisbehere
Fan Vote- The Post
After the way the 2021 season went down, it’s only right that neither goaltender wins the award for goalie of the year. Brian Elliott deserves a nod for doing his absolute best given the circumstances he faced, but there was one man and one inanimate object that deserved the award more. Shayne Gostisbehere’s defensive struggles are well documented but he rose to the occasion at different times this season and made multiple highlight reel saves on his own. There’s also always the tried and true post to save the day when the puck beats the goaltender, which happened a fair amount this season as well. Overall, the goaltending role was a mess this season, but heroes rise from hard times and Shayne Gostisbehere did his best to save a few goals when all other lines of defense failed.
Richards/Carter Duo of the Year
Staff Vote- Shayne Gostisbehere and Samuel Morin
Fan Vote- Jim Jackson and Keith Jones
The Ghost, Morin duo was a fairytale meeting that most fans have been waiting years to see and the commentary team of Jim Jackson and Keith Jones kept it real all season long. The defensive duo consisted of two players the fanbase desperately wanted to root for and were actually pretty good when they were paired together. As for the commentary team, Jim Jackson is one of the best play-by-play guys in the game and Keith Jones wasn’t afraid to speak out when the Flyers were at their lowest. The honesty mixed with just a bit of homerism makes JJ and Jonesy a great duo.
Eric Desjardins Unsung Hero Award
Staff Vote- Justin Braun
Fan Vote- Shayne Gostisbehere
This was probably the category with the biggest array of answers, but Justin Braun emerged victorious in the staff vote and the fan vote was a close battle between Ghost and Wade Allison where Gostisbehere walked away with the win. Justin Braun, for all the hate he takes, was probably their best consistent defenseman this season partnered alongside Ivan Provorov. Ghost’s story was one of a long-awaited rebirth to the familiar days of the old Ghost Bear. While he still didn’t see consistent ice time for most of the season, he still played well and scored 9 goals in 41 games, a pace that would have given him a new career high over a full season.
Ilya Bryzgalov Most Quotable Award
Staff Vote- Jake Voracek
Fan Vote- Jake Voracek
Jake Voracek ran away with the staff vote but just barely nudged out Keith Jones in the fan polls by a 35% to 33.7% margin. This season wasn’t filled with the one-liners that last year was, but chances are you all remember Jake Voracek calling Mike Sielski a weasel during postgame. It was a moment that sparked memes of Travis Konecny’s reaction and Voracek’s comments made league-wide news. He spoke with league officials after his comments, but it was never announced whether he was officially fined or not. Either way, it was a moment for the ages and probably the funniest thing that happened outside of their play on the ice.
Gritty WTF Moment of the Year
Staff Vote- The Month of March
Fan Vote- 9-0 Blowout vs NYR
Given this award is a bit of an open-ended one, there were multiple variations of the same answer that all basically equated to the month of March. The 9-0 blowout was listed a separate category in the fan vote and narrowly edged out “the month of March” as the winner. When it rains it pours in Philadelphia and once the Flyers season started to come off the rails it just got worse and worse. They went 6-10-1 in March and lost by five or more goals four times, all of which was highlighted by their 9-0 blowout loss to the Rangers on March 17. The whole month was some of the worst hockey the organization has ever seen and we were lucky enough to live through it.
Wayne Simmonds Leadership Award
Staff Vote- Claude Giroux
Fan Vote- Claude Giroux
Hard to argue this one. For all the crap Claude Giroux takes on a yearly basis, he is still the lifeblood of this team. He wears the “C” with pride and carries the group on and off the ice. His anger through the mess that was the 2021 season was visible, and it lit a fire under him multiple times to win the game single-handedly. He’s a great man who is still playing at an exceptional pace.
.
Daniel Esche’s Staff Awards
I wanted to sneak this in as a surprise to all of my staff here at Brotherly Puck and Brotherly Pod.
Brotherly Pod Co-Host of the Year: Katie Bogan
Katie was a recurring guest during season two of Brotherly Pod and got promoted to a full-time host for season three when Sisterly Pod got a full-time slot. When her partner abandoned her, she stuck around and bounced from show to show as a guest until biting the bullet and joining Noah for Noahly Pod for the remainder of the season. Katie has developed into a solid host who will be back at the helm of Sisterly Pod for season four, and I couldn’t ask for someone better to lead that show.
Brotherly Puck Contributor of the Year: Manny Benevides
M-A-N-N-Y comes through time after time with some of the most in-depth prospect reports out there and solid regular contributions to the site. Not to mention he is a regular contributor on Brotherly Pod as well. As my right-hand man on both brands he puts up with me more than most. His talent as a writer is next to none in the Flyers’ scene and he only gets better with time.
Past Award Winners
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 (staff/fan) | |
| Most improved | Scott Laughton | Konecny/Konecny |
| MVP | Carter Hart | Couts/Couts |
| Offensive Player | Sean Couturier | TK/TK |
| Defensive Player | Travis Sanheim | Provorov/Provorov |
| Goaltender | Carter Hart | —– |
| Duo of the Year | Patrick/Konency | Provorov & Niskanen/Hayes & TK |
| Unsung Hero | Lindblom | Laughton/Laughton |
| Most Quotable | Konecny | AV/Hayes |
| WTF Moment | —– | Flyers are good/ Lindblom’s diagnosis |
| Leadership Award | Giroux | ——– |
.
Written by: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: @RyanLMeyer edited by @DanTheFlyeraFan
brotherlypuck.com 