Yes. I was only talking about this year's nominees in referencing what I am sick of.
Of the 46 winners so far since 1968, 22 have won it for recovering from health issues/injury
'72 Clarke - diabetes
'73 MacDonald - knee/ligament, cartilage damage
'76 Gilbert - back injury
'86 Simmer - knee/ligament damage
'89 Kerr - knee, shoulder injuries and asceptic meningitis
'92 Fitzpatrick - Eosinophilia–myalgia syndrome
'93 Lemieux - Hodgkin's lymphoma
'95 Lafontaine - series of head injuries
'96 Roberts - bone spurs and nerve damage
'97 Granato - brain injury
'98 McLennan - bacterial meningitis
'99 Cullen - non-Hodgkin lymphoma
'00 Daneyko - alcoholism
'02 Koivu - non-Hodgkin lymphoma
'03 Yzerman - knee realignment surgery
'04 Berard - eye injury/blindness
'06 Selanne - knee surgery
'07 Kessel - testicular cancer
'08 Blake - chronic myelogenous leukemia
'09 Sullivan - fragmented disc, sprained groin
'12 Pacioretty - concussion, fractured vertebrae
'13 Harding - multiple sclerosis
3 players won the award after not being able to recover from injury
'90 Kluzak - knee injuries/operation
'94 Neely - various injuries/myositis ossificans, knee, degenerative hip condition
'11 Laperriere - post-concussion symptoms/puck to the face
In '78 Goring won for overcoming being too short and light... if you want to count that.
And if you want to count overcoming mental/emotional trauma, 2 players have won under those circumstances
'10 Theodore - death of his infant son
'14 Moore - sickness and death of his wife
So it wasn't always about the recovery room, but overcoming grievous injury/health issues/personal trauma has been the trend since the early 90s.
The rest are mostly some rearrangement of the words "dedication and perseverance", and that has not been the case since
'01 Graves - "all-around dedication to hockey"