The Philadelphia Sports Writers Association has announced that Flyers center Claude Giroux has been named its 2011 Pro Athlete of the Year.
Giroux, 23, was one of the NHL’s breakout stars this past calendar year. In 2010-11, he led the Flyers in regular-season scoring with 76 points then upped that performance in the playoffs (12 points in 11 games.) Giroux continued his run of excellent play into this season, moving atop the NHL scoring leaderboard (16G-23A-39PTS in 28 games) before being sidelined by a concussion.
The PSWA will honor Giroux at its annual Sports Award Dinner on Jan. 30. Upon receiving the award, he’ll join some pretty select company -- Roy Halladay, Brian Dawkins, Jimmy Rollins, Allen Iverson, Ryan Howard and Bernard Hopkins have all won it before.