At the end of each regular season, the Flyers recognize various players with team awards, such as Bobby Clarke Trophy for the team's most valuable player and the Barry Ashbee Trophy for the best defensemen. Hopefully, some Flyers players will have a strong second half of the 2017-18 season and finish among the finalists for NHL leaguewide awards. If the NHL awards were limited only to Flyers players, here's how the honors might be bestowed at midseason.

Hart Trophy: Claude Giroux

Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek all enjoyed stellar first halves of the season and, if they play to the same level in the second half, could even garner some for the NHL's top individual honor if the Flyers make the playoffs. Giroux is a past Hart Trophy finalist (2013-14).

While all three merit discussion, Giroux is the winner here. The veteran star immediately embraced the idea of switching from center to left wing if it would help the team. There was no reluctance and no ego whatsoever on his part. Instead, he worked hard and made the adjustment look easy despite never having been an even-strength left winger before in his career (he'd been drafted as a right winger).

In addition to his Hart Trophy worthy stats (tied for second in the NHL's Art Ross Trophy race as the highest point-getter), Giroux's candidacy is bolstered by the quiet but vital behind-the-scenes leadership that the team captain and other team leaders showed in circling the wagons and making sure everyone was still on board when the team hit an 0-5-5 spell that could have permanently derailed the season. Giroux remained steadfast, setting the right example on the ice as well as in the dressing room.

Norris Trophy: Ivan Provorov

This is a two-horse race between the 20-year-old Provorov and third-year NHLer Shayne Gostisbehere. Ranking third in scoring among NHL defensemen, Gostisbehere has also shown considerable defensive improvement this season, especially with his quick stick to break up plays. "Ghost" has made various game-changing plays during the season to date. He started out the season on a tear and then, after an injury and a few weeks of inconsistent play, has recently surged again.

However, Provorov is the Flyers' most complete defenseman. He plays the most minutes in the vast majority of games. The young Russian gets the toughest defensive matchups. Already solid defensively, he continued to improve. His offensive game is talked about less but he's on a very respectable pace to score about 15-16 goals and the neighborhood of 40 points on top of the defensive workload he handles. When he's had a rare bad game, he usually bounces right back with a stellar performance the next game.

The recent pairing of Provorov and Gostisbehere as a duo has brought out the best in both players in most of the games in which they've been together.

Selke Trophy: Sean Couturier

The irony of the NHL's award for the best defensive forward is that, over the last 20 years, it's taken strong offensive stats as well as excelling without the puck to win the award. Gone are the days when even the likes of Bob Gainey or Guy Carbonneau would be likely to edge out a 30-goal scorer such Patrice Bergeron or a 74-point campaign by Anze Kopitar.

From a defensive standpoint, Couturier has been one of the NHL's top shutdown centers. That's nothing new.

In fact, even prior to being placed on the top line with Giroux (and, for much of the season, Voracek) was one of the NHL's better five-on-five point producers. What he lacked were the goal numbers and first power-play unit driven points to grab the attention of award voters outside Philadelphia and push him into major candidacy for the Selke. At the very least, he should be a finalist this year and he has at least a fighting chance to win the award with a strong second half.

Scott Laughton has more quietly had a strong season when asked to take on some tough checking duties. However, Couturier is the runaway winner here.

Calder Trophy: Robert Hagg

Four rookies have been on the Flyers' NHL roster throughout the season to date: forwards Nolan Patrick and Taylor Leier and defensemen Travis Sanheim and Robert Hagg.

Only one, Hagg, has dressed in every game. Hagg's upside for the long-term is perhaps not as high as that of fellow rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim, but Hagg (who is in fourth year of North American pro hockey while Sanheim is in his second) has played well overall in the role asked of him by the coaches.

The main things that the coaching staff wants from Hagg are to be good at defending around the net, bring a physical element, be strong on the walls and efficient with the puck.

There have been sporadic hints of an ability to develop more of an up-ice game, but neither this nor Corsi-type stats are the basis by which Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol assesses Hagg. It's not that he's been infallible, particularly in his puck work, but overall he's been sound in the areas the coaches consider his core-element game. His physical game has been particularly good, and he's underrated in stick positioning and his feet along the boards.

Sanheim, a 2014 first-round pick, and 2017 first-round pick Nolan Patrick have both shown flashes of their long-term potential as projected NHL impact players. Sanheim's up-ice game and puck moving ability are both solid already and he's barely scratched the surface of those talents. His defensive reads and work in 50-50 battles are still improving. There have been a few games this season where Sanheim has been quite good in all three zones, both with and without the puck. Those games should greatly increase in consistency over time.

The 19-year-old Patrick has been feeling his way through his first NHL season but has quietly shown signs in recent weeks of getting settled in. A shorter-than-hoped off-season after hernia surgery and then an in-season injury that kept Patrick out for a month likely factored into some of his early ups and downs along with the normal learning curve of figuring out what works in the NHL and what doesn't. Keep in mind that no young player is immune to the learning curve. Even the likes of Joe Thornton (three goals and seven points in 55 games as a rookie) and Vincent Lecavalier (13 goals, 28 points, minus-19 in 82 games as a rookie) had to navigate some trying early times as teenage players.

The speedy Leier got off to a strong start this season after a good training camp. He plays a different role at the NHL level as primarily a checking forward, whereas he's been an all-situations (including power play duty as well as penalty killing) and upper-lineup player in the AHL.

Vezina Trophy: Brian Elliott

While former Jennings Trophy winner Elliott is unlikely to win the NHL's top goalie award or finish as a finalist, he's been a vital player for his team especially during a stretch of 16 consecutive starts. During the month of December, he was one of the NHL's best goalies: 13 GP, 8-4-1 record, 2.15 GAA, .927 save percentage (after a .920 month in 10 November games).

Within the Flyers locker room, teammates unanimously consider him to be a player whose value goes behind his stats. Some would even put his name into the discussion for team MVP because of his unflappable nature and competitiveness for every save. The sheer number of minutes he's played (eighth in the NHL at 1,992:09 minutes) make him a "glue guy" on the team.

Michal Neuvirth was bitten by the injury bug again this season and had a couple of games in November that were not up to his capabilities. However, Neuvirth has also played at a very high level at times. His .921 overall save percentage is very good and his 33-save road shutout of the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 1 was a brilliant performance. Arguably, the two most spectacular saves by a Flyers goalie this season were both authored by Neuvirth: an eye-popping lateral movement stop on LA's Anze Kopitar on Oct. 17 and a 10-bell glove save on Buffalo's Sam Reinhart on Jan. 7.

Masteron Trophy: Scott Laughton

It would have been very easy for Scott Laughton to sulk and to see his NHL career slip away after he spent most of the 2016-17 season back in the AHL with the Phantoms.

Instead, he embraced the challenge to play a different role than he had in previous stints with the Phantoms, excelled at it and has successfully transferred that same checking-oriened role to the NHL - with perhaps still some upside to be a top-nine forward. The Masteron Trophy is all about perseverance and dedication to the game.