in: Born in 1959, Dead in 1985, Swedish ice hockey players,
AIK players
Maine Mariners players
Olympic ice hockey players of Sweden
Philadelphia Flyers draft picks
Philadelphia Flyers players
Springfield Indians players
Vezina Trophy winners
Pelle Lindbergh
Position Goaltender
Caught Left
Weight 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Teams NHL
Springfield Indians
Nationality SWE
Born May 24, 1959,
Stockholm, SWE
Died November 11 1985 (aged 26),
Somerdale, NJ, U.S.
NHL Draft 35th overall, 1979
Pro Career 1980 – 1985
Göran Per-Eric "Pelle" Lindbergh ( May 24, 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden – November 11, 1985 in Somerdale, New Jersey, United States) was a Swedish professional goaltender who played parts of five seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers.
1 Playing career
4 Career statistics
4.1 Regular season
4.2 Post season
Playing career[]
Having gained fame while playing for local team Hammarby in his youth, and especially making his debut in the highest Swedish hockey league with AIK (Stockholm) leading him to the Swedish National Team in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, Lindbergh set his sights on the North American game. Lindbergh owns the distinction of being the goaltender on the only team which did not lose to the gold-medal winning Team USA at the 1980 Olympics, as his Team Sweden and Team USA played to a 2-2 tie in the first game of the tournament. After being drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft (2nd round, 35th overall), he started out his North American career during the 1980–81 season by playing a couple seasons for the Maine Mariners of the AHL before playing his first games for the Flyers in 1981–82. In 1982–83, he was named goalie of the NHL All-Rookie Team. He led the NHL with 40 victories during the 1984–85 season and won the Vezina Trophy, the first European goaltender to do so in NHL history. That same year, he was also named a First Team All-Star.
Death[]
On November 10, 1985, he drove his car into a wall in front of a New Jersey, elementary school, fatally injuring himself and also injuring two others. Lindbergh died the next day, November 11.
Lindbergh topped the fan voting for the 1986 NHL All-Star Game. It would mark the first time a player was chosen posthumously for an all-star team in a major North American team sport.
Though his number 31 was never officially retired by the Flyers, no Flyer has worn the number 31 since Lindbergh's death.
1980–81 Les Cunningham Award
1980–81 Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award
1980–81 Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award
1982–83 NHL All-Rookie Team
1982-83 NHL All-Star Game
1984–85 Vezina Trophy
1984–85 NHL First-Team All-Star
1985–86 NHL All-Star Game (awarded posthumously)
The Philadelphia Flyers named an award, the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial, in his honor. Since 1993–94, it has been annually awarded to the most improved player on the team.
Career statistics[]
Regular season[]
1980–81 Maine Mariners AHL 51 31 14 5 3035 165 1 3.23
1981–82 Maine Mariners AHL 25 17 7 2 1505 83 0 3.31
1981–82 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 8 2 4 2 480 35 0 4.38
1982–83 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 40 23 13 3 2333 116 3 2.98
1983–84 Springfield Indians AHL 4 4 0 0 240 12 0 3.00
NHL totals
AHL totals
Post season[]
1983–84 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 2 0 1 0 26 3 0 6.92
1984–85 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 18 12 6 0 1008 42 3 2.50
Official biographical homepage
Flyers History Bio
Spectrum Memories: Lindbergh Memorial at Philadelphiaflyers.com
Pelle Lindbergh in Fatal Car Crash
Pelle Lindbergh's biography at Legends of Hockey
Pelle Lindbergh 31 Campaign
Tribute to Pelle Lindbergh
None Winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy
Mark Howe
Tom Barrasso Winner of the Vezina Trophy
John Vanbiesbrouck
This article is part of the Swedish hockey portal.
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Pelle Lindbergh. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).
Dead in 1985
Swedish ice hockey players