Flames captain Mikael Backlund received Selke Trophy votes in 2024-25

On Monday, the National Hockey League revealed its first award winners of the 2024-25 campaign, unveiling the player that won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy and the Frank Selke Trophy. Both of those awards went to Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, who had a superb year, with Barkov winning the Selke Trophy for the third consecutive season.

Among the other players that received consideration from the Professional Hockey Writers Association voters for the Selke: Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund, who received three fifth-place votes. (Coincidentally enough, Backlund won the King Clancy Trophy a couple seasons ago.)

This marks the eighth time in the last nine seasons that Backlund has received Selke votes:

• In 2016-17, he finished fourth in voting and appeared on 75 ballots (he received three first-place votes)
• In 2017-18, he finished 13th in voting and appeared on three ballots
• In 2018-19, he finished eighth in voting and appeared on 21 ballots (he received one first-place vote)
• In 2019-20, he finished 26th in voting and appeared on 1 ballot
• In 2021-22, he finished 13th in voting and appeared on 11 ballots
• In 2022-23, he finished sixth in voting and appeared on 90 ballots
• In 2o23-24, he finished 20th in voting and appeared on two ballots
• In 2024-25, he finished 35th in voting and appeared on three ballots

The lone season where he was shut out of the Selke voting was the 2020-21 shortened season, which featured the Flames playing entirely in empty rinks against the other six Canadian teams. It wasn’t a great year for the Flames or for Backlund.

The Selke Trophy goes to “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” and there’s some subjectivity to that. The general tendency for votes has been to focus on players that play a lot against the league’s best players and don’t get caved in. Because there are few definitive metrics available to quantify that, voters do tend to rely on reputation and past performance to suss things out.

Well, Backlund consistently plays against the league’s best players and doesn’t get caved in. The seasons where he’s finished higher than usual in the Selke voting have tended to be seasons where his offensive numbers popped a bit more – rather than preventing the other team from scoring, his line out-scored them. But he’s been a pretty consistent presence on ballots well into his 30s, and that’s undoubtedly a testament to his performance and reputation around the league as a strong 200-foot player.