Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron has been named the 2023 Frank J. Selke Trophy winner. The long-time veteran won the sixth Selke Trophy of his career, an NHL record.
Bergeron scored 27 goals and 58 points in 78 games played this past season. He was the No. 1 center on the historic 2022-23 Bruins team. The team finished with 65 wins and 135 points in the standings, both NHL records.
Before last season it was possible that Bergeron would have hung up his skates for good. Luckily for the Bruins and the NHL, he decided to go for one last dance along with David Krejci. Led by the goal scoring of David Pastrnak, the goaltending of Linus Ullmark, and the defense of Charlie McAvoy the Bruins tore up the league in the regular season. They had a perfect storm of everything clicking together at exactly the right time.
Unfortunately for them, their luck ran out in the playoffs when they blew a 3-1 lead to the Florida Panthers and lost in seven games to them in the first round. That doesn’t take away from the fabulous season Bergeron had, yet again.
He is the undisputed greatest defensive forward of the last decade and puts up solid offensive numbers as well. In his career, Bergeron has 427 goals and 1,040 points in 1,294 games played.
He also has an astonishing career +/- rating of +289, behind only his linemate Brad Marchand who is at +290. Bergeron has scored 30 goals in six different seasons in his career and won the Stanley Cup in 2011. He has played in three Stanley Cup finals’, in 2011, 2013, and 2019, respectively.
The Bruins are going to be making a lot of changes in the offseason because they need to sign some players on expiring contracts and they will need to make room for them. It will be an uphill battle for them to repeat the success of this past season. If they bring back Bergeron for another year, they’ll at least have a good shot.
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