Background and career
Claude Giroux (French pronunciation: [klod ʒiʁu]; born January 12, 1988) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward and alternate captain for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played for the Philadelphia Flyers and the Florida Panthers. Selected by the Flyers 22nd overall in the 2006 NHL entry draft, Giroux was named the Flyers' team captain in 2013, and became the longest-tenured captain in team history. Giroux played his 1,000th game with the Flyers on March 17, 2022. Giroux has been known to be a very flexible offensive player; capable of playing comfortably on both centre and wing throughout his career. Before playing in the NHL, Giroux played his major junior career with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), where he helped the team win a 2008 President's Cup and earned the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the 2008 playoff MVP. Internationally, he won a gold medal with Team Canada in the 2008 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Giroux made his debut with the Flyers in February 2008 and joined the roster full-time midway through the 2008–09 season. In 2011, after the trades of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, Giroux took over the role of the club's first-line centre. He was the club's top point-scorer for seven seasons. In 2012 and 2014, he finished third in the league in point scoring. In 2018, he finished second in the league with 102 points, behind only Connor McDavid.
Giroux was born on January 12, 1988, in Hearst, Ontario, a Francophone town, and is fluent in both English and French. He is the son of Raymond and Nicole Giroux, and has one sister named Isabelle. Giroux's favourite hockey player growing up was Pavel Bure. In mid 2002, at the age of 14, Giroux and his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where he attended Béatrice-Desloges High School in the suburban community of Orléans, but graduated in 12th grade at Minto French Catholic Highschool due to the school schedule being flexible around his busy hockey schedule. While living in Orléans, Giroux played Major Bantam AA and Minor Midget AA hockey for the Cumberland Barons, and was the club's leading scorer in the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons. After being passed over in the 2004 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) draft, Giroux played for the Cumberland Grads during the 2004–05 season at age 16. Despite missing most of the season after contracting mononucleosis, Giroux scored 40 points in 48 games and was named the Central Junior A Hockey League (CJHL)'s Rookie of the Year.
A free agent, Giroux was invited to the (QMJHL)'s Gatineau Olympiques training camp for a walk-on tryout. He was signed shortly after. During his rookie season with the Olympiques, Giroux scored 39 goals for a total of 103 points in 69 games and was named QMJHL Rookie of the Year. He was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL in the first round, 22nd overall, of the 2006 NHL entry draft. The Flyers signed Giroux to an entry-level contract on July 23, 2007. Giroux made his NHL debut when the Flyers visited the Ottawa Senators on February 19, 2008, recording no points and being the team's first shooter in the shootout. Sent back down to the Olympiques, he helped the club win the QMJHL Playoffs and earned himself the Guy Lafleur Trophy as MVP in the QMJHL playoffs by scoring 17 goals and 34 assists in 19 playoff games, also setting a franchise record. On February 20, 2019, Giroux's number 28 was retired with the Olympiques.
After a disappointing training camp for the Flyers at the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Giroux was assigned to the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms. After acclimatizing to professional hockey, however, things turned around quickly; he was named Rookie of the Month for December for his eight goals and six assists in eight games played. He was then called up to the Flyers after the Christmas break and remained there throughout the rest of the season. On December 30, he recorded his first NHL point by assisting on a Jeff Carter goal in a win over the Vancouver Canucks. He suffered a mild concussion during the next game when Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks elbowed him in the head. Giroux finished the game but missed the next five; Perry was suspended for four games. On January 27, 2009, Giroux scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Tomáš Vokoun and the Florida Panthers in a 3–2 loss. He ended the 2008–09 season with nine goals and 27 points in 42 games played. His first Stanley Cup playoff goal came in a 6–3 win in game three of the opening round in the 2009 playoffs against Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury. The same game also saw him setting up a short-handed goal when he stole the puck in the corner of the Penguins zone and outworked their backcheck, skating past the back of their net twice protecting the puck while looking for incoming support in the form of Simon Gagné. Giroux and the Flyers would be defeated by the fourth-seeded and eventual Stanley Cup champion Penguins in six games. He played all six games and recorded two goals and three assists for five points.
The Flyers were an inconsistent team for the bulk of the 2009–10 season, which affected all of their players. Giroux spent a large amount of time centring a line with James van Riemsdyk, the highly-touted rookie winger that the Flyers had drafted second overall in 2007. The team's fortunes, however, soon turned dramatically, as they finished third in the Atlantic Division and qualified for the playoffs by winning the last game of the season against their rival, the New York Rangers, with Giroux scoring the game-winning shootout goal against Henrik Lundqvist. Girioux finished the season fifth on the team in goals and fourth in points. Despite coming in as the conference seventh seed, the Flyers dismantled the second-seeded New Jersey Devils in the first round, winning the series 4–1. The Flyers then made an historic comeback in the semifinals against the sixth-seeded Boston Bruins, becoming only the third team in NHL history, and first since 1975, to overcome a three-game deficit in the playoffs; the series win earned the team a spot in the Eastern Conference Final against the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens. The Flyers dominated the Canadiens, winning the series 4–1, and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. In the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals against the second-seeded Chicago Blackhawks, Giroux put up 4 points in the series, including the game-winning goal in overtime of game three, but the Flyers eventually lost the series 4–2. Giroux ended the post-season with 21 points, cementing his reputation as an emerging young talent. A month into the 2010–11 season, the Flyers signed Giroux to a three-year, $11.25 million contract extension. The contract, which was signed on November 8, 2010, accounted for a $3.75 million cap hit annually. On January 11, 2011, Giroux was named to the 2011 NHL All-Star Game roster. Giroux played his 200th career game on March 26, 2011, against the New York Islanders. He finished his break-out season with 25 goals and 51 assists for 76 points in all 82 games as the Flyers finished second in the East and third in the NHL overall. Giroux would follow up by scoring a goal and 11 assists for 12 points in all 11 2011 playoff games, in which the Flyers erased a 3–2 series deficit and defeated the seventh-seeded Buffalo Sabres in seven games but were ultimately defeated in a four-game sweep in the second round by the third seeded and eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.
After the Flyers traded away Jeff Carter and Mike Richards in the 2011 off-season, Giroux took over the role as first line centre for the club. The trading of Richards and Carter also made him the second-longest tenured member of the Flyers. Giroux formed a new top line with Scott Hartnell and free agent acquisition Jaromír Jágr. Giroux led the League in point-scoring for much of the season, and was considered a favourite for the Hart Memorial Trophy for league MVP at the season's All-Star break. He finished the 2011–12 season with 93 points (28 goals and 65 assists) in 77 games. His 93 points ranked third in the league only behind the 97 points by Tampa Bay Lightning centre Steven Stamkos and the league-leading 109 points by Pittsburgh Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin, respectively. the Flyers as a team finished fifth in the East and Giroux also finished fourth in the Hart Trophy voting as Malkin, Stamkos and New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist were named the three finalists with Malkin winning the award with Stamkos finishing second and Lundqvist finishing third in the voting, respectively. On April 13, 2012, in game two of the first round of the 2012 playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Giroux recorded his first career hat trick. He recorded six points during that same game, earning a Flyers record for most points during a single Stanley Cup playoff game. The Flyers would go on to upset the fourth-seeded Penguins in six games. On May 7, 2012, Giroux received a one-game suspension for a hit to the head of New Jersey Devils forward Dainius Zubrus during game four of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. After the Flyers were defeated by the Devils in five games and eliminated from the playoffs, Giroux ended the playoffs as the Flyers' top playoff point scorer (17 points). After the Flyers' elimination, Giroux had surgery on both of his wrists; the right to repair torn cartilage, and the left to remove bone spurs. He later claimed that Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby had repeatedly slashed his wrists during face-offs in the first round series against Pittsburgh. At the time news of the surgery was revealed, Giroux was still the playoffs' leading point scorer, even though his team had been eliminated two weeks earlier. On June 20, 2012, Giroux was named the cover athlete for NHL 13 at the NHL awards in Las Vegas; he became the first Philadelphia Flyer on an EA Sports NHL video game cover since Eric Lindros on NHL 99. During the 2012–13 NHL lock-out, Giroux and Flyers teammate Daniel Brière played for Eisbären Berlin of the German Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). In his ninth game in Germany, he suffered a neck and shoulder injury that was initially feared to be a concussion. He returned to North America and remained inactive through the remainder of the lock-out. After the lock-out ended, Giroux was named the 19th team captain in Flyers history on January 15, 2013, taking over for the indefinitely-injured Chris Pronger. Giroux got off to a slow start once the shortened 2012–13 season began. Missing linemates Jaromír Jagr, who signed with the Dallas Stars during free agency, and Scott Hartnell, who suffered a broken foot during the third game of the season, Giroux registered only seven points through the team's first 13 games. His season turned around once right winger Jakub Voráček, who was also struggling, was placed on his line. From February 12 through the end of the regular season, Giroux was the fourth-most productive player in the League, scoring 10 goals and 30 assists for a total of 40 points during that span. He finished with 48 points (13 goals and 35 assists) in all 48 games and new linemate Voráček finished with a career-high 22 goals. The team as a whole struggled, however, and the Flyers missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2006–07 season.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
