Lindblom voted as Flyers' 2020-21 Masterton Trophy nominee

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In January 2020, Oskar Lindblom had just begun a battle with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that occurs in bones or in the soft tissue around the bones.

One year later, Lindblom was scoring a goal in the Flyers' season-opening win over the Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center.

The 24-year-old has been a regular in the Flyers' 2020-21 lineup. He entered Monday with eight goals and six assists over 49 games.

Ahead of the the team's regular-season finale Monday night, it was announced that Lindblom was voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association's Philadelphia chapter as the Flyers' nominee for the 2020-21 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, an award given annually to "the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey."

Lindblom's life and career were rocked in December 2019, when the humble Swedish native received his diagnosis. Lindblom missed the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season as he fought for his life. He completed his radiation treatments last July at Pennsylvania Hospital and astoundingly returned to the Flyers' lineup for two games during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs in September.

He has remained cancer-free, working hard through the offseason and 2020-21 season to regain his strength and conditioning. With the crammed schedule of a 56-game regular season and a bout with COVID-19, it has not been easy for Lindblom to feel like himself on the ice again.

"It goes up and down every day," Lindblom said off his energy in early April after he was held out a game for rest. "You can feel great one day, another day you feel like you haven't played hockey for a while. You just have to battle through, try to be strong mentally and do your work every day and hopefully feel good. That's the only thing I can do, try to recover as well as I can and be on top of my game while we're playing."

Lindblom was a finalist for the award last season.

“Every time I look at him, I see a beautiful young man," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said in April. "I wish he had the same hairdo that he had last year, but it’s coming back. I have flashbacks sometimes of when we had to tell him in Denver that he had cancer — we didn’t quite know what type it was, but we had to send him back to Philly. Some of the flashbacks that I have are him every time he’d be around the team with no hair, smiling and being positive. I think it made everybody in our group — players and coaches and management that were close to Oskar — realize how important every moment is, to make sure that you're always at your best and doing the right things when you see someone go through that, such a wonderful person."

Following a vote by the PHWA, the winner of the honor will be announced among the NHL awards.

Here are the voted nominees for each club:

  • Anaheim Ducks: David Backes 
  • Arizona Coyotes: Phil Kessel 
  • Boston Bruins: Kevan Miller 
  • Buffalo Sabres: Dustin Tokarski 
  • Calgary Flames: Milan Lucic 
  • Carolina Hurricanes: Jordan Staal 
  • Colorado Avalanche: Valeri Nichushkin 
  • Columbus Blue Jackets: Zac Dalpe 
  • Chicago Blackhawks: Andrew Shaw 
  • Dallas Stars: Roope Hintz 
  • Detroit Red Wings: Danny DeKeyser 
  • Edmonton Oilers: Mike Smith 
  • Florida Panthers: Chris Driedger 
  • Los Angeles Kings: Matt Roy 
  • Minnesota Wild: Matt Dumba 
  • Montreal Canadiens: Corey Perry
  • Nashville Predators: Pekka Rinne
  • New Jersey Devils: Scott Wedgewood
  • New York Islanders: Casey Cizikas
  • New York Rangers: Colin Blackwell
  • ​Ottawa Senators: Nick Paul
  • Philadelphia Flyers: Oskar Lindblom
  • Pittsburgh Penguins: Casey DeSmith
  • St. Louis Blues: Vladimir Tarasenko
  • San Jose Sharks: Patrick Marleau
  • Tampa Bay Lightning: Steven Stamkos
  • Toronto Maple Leafs: Jack Campbell
  • Vancouver Canucks: Tyler Motte
  • Vegas Golden Knights: Marc-Andre Fleury
  • Washington Capitals: Zdeno Chara
  • Winnipeg Jets: Eric Comrie

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