On Monday morning, the National Hockey League announced Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov as the winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy.
The award, voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, is awarded annually to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.
Barkov has picked up Selke votes in every one of his 12 seasons in the NHL except for his rookie season back in 2014-15 when he was 18 years old. Since then, Barkov has won the award three times. First in 2020-21, then for a second time in 2023-24. With his win of the award this season, he joins a shortlist of names featuring Patrice Bergeron, Pavel Datsyuk, and Rod Brind’Amour as back-to-back winners in the past quarter-century. Barkov appeared on 173 of the 191 ballots and was the top choice on 96 for 1,363 voting points.
Someone else who picked up votes — okay, vote, singular — was Canucks forward Pius Suter. On top of posting a career-best year from a points producing perspective, Suter played matchup minutes for the Canucks both before and after the JT Miller trade. Suter’s versatility and strong defensive game made him a valuable piece for the Canucks over the past two seasons, and as he gets set to his free agency on July 1st, he can officially advertise himself as a Selke Trophy vote-getter.
The lone vote for Suter was a fifth place vote on one of 191 ballots, putting Suter in a tie for 37th place with Quinton Byfield, Roope Hintz, Jordan Kyrou, Anton Lundell, Ilya Mikheyev, and Evan Rodrigues. At some point, PHWA president Frank Seravalli will likely tweet out the full voting breakdown, but until then, it remains a mystery which voter had Suter on their ballot.
In other Canucks Selke-related news, Elias Pettersson did not pick up any votes this season. In 2022-23, he finished seventh in voting, and last season, he finished 26th in voting.
On top of the Selke Trophy, the PHWA votes on the Hart Trophy (MVP), the Lady Byng Trophy (Sportsmanship), the Norris Trophy (Best defenceman), and the Calder Trophy (Best rookie).
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