Gabriel Landeskog wins NHL’s Masterton Trophy, Messier Award after injury comeback

Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog has won the NHL’s 2025-26 Bill Masterton Trophy as well as its Mark Messier Leadership Award, the league announced Tuesday.

The Masterton is annually given to the NHL player who best represents “qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey,” according to the NHL. It is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The Messier Award, meanwhile, which is both named after and chosen by Hall of Famer Mark Messier, goes to the player who best “exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season.”

After winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, Landeskog missed three consecutive regular seasons due to lingering issues from a skate-blade cut over his right knee suffered in the 2020 bubble. All told, he underwent four surgeries in the ensuing years, including a last-resort cartilage transplant in May 2023. He returned to game action with a conditioning assignment to the AHL Colorado Eagles in April 2025, then played five games for Colorado in its 2025 first-round series loss to the Stars.

This year, after returning to regular-season action and playing 60 games, Landeskog emerged on top. He had 14 goals and 35 points in the regular season, then emerged as one of the Avalanche’s best players in their run to the Western Conference final, scoring six goals in 13 games. The Golden Knights eliminated Landeskog and the Avalanche in a sweep.

After being named a Masterton finalist again this year, Landeskog expressed appreciation but said winning the award wouldn’t define his journey.

“It’s humbling and a great honor and there’ve been amazing players with incredible stories and perseverance that have been nominated or accepted the award,” he said last month. “But for me and what I’ve gone through, it’s just so far beyond what anybody else is going to be able to label it or not. Whether I win the Masterton or not, it doesn’t change anything for me. … For me the ultimate prize I’ve already won, and that’s to continue working and getting to play hockey.”

Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin and Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews were this season’s other Masterton finalists.

Dahlin’s fiancee, Carolina Matovac, was struck by heart failure last summer, eventually receiving a heart transplant and requiring months of hospitalization. She also revealed that the couple lost their unborn child during the medical emergency. Dahlin took a relatively brief leave of absence in early November to be with her in Sweden, missing five games over the course of the season for her checkups. He finished with 19 goals for the Buffalo Sabres, who broke a 15-year playoff drought before ultimately losing in the second round, and set a career-high with 74 points.

Toews returned to the NHL after missing the previous two seasons with various health issues, including long COVID-19 and chronic inflammatory response syndrome. After signing a one-year deal with his hometown Winnipeg Jets, the three-time Stanley Cup winner appeared in all 82 regular-season games and finished with 11 goals and 29 points. He also won 62.1 percent of his faceoffs.

Landeskog, who has spent his entire NHL career with the Avalanche after arriving as the No. 2 pick in 2011, is the first player in franchise history to earn either award. He was a finalist for the 2024-25 Masterton, which went to Columbus’ Sean Monahan.