Montreal Canadiens' captain Nick Suzuki is one of the three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy after his remarkable regular season.
The NHL announced this afternoon that Montreal Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki was one of the three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, awarded “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game”. The other two finalists are also centermen: Tampa Bay Lightning’s Anthony Cirelli and Colorado Avalanche’s Brock Nelson.
The nomination should come as no surprise to Canadiens’ fans, as Martin St-Louis regularly entrusts Suzuki and his line to face the opponent’s most productive forward and for key faceoffs. He was sixth in the NHL for faceoffs taken with 1,449, meaning he took 32.2% of all Canadiens’ draws. Only two players in the league took an equal or bigger percentage of their team’s faceoffs: Dylan Larkin ( 32.2%) and Nico Hischier (39.9%). On top of producing 106 points this past season, the 26-year-old, London, Ontario native, finished the season with a plus-37 rating.
Averaging 20:49 of ice time, he played very little on the penalty kill this season, but that was due to St-Louis wanting to specialize his players, so to speak. The coach used Suzuki on his first power-play unit and, at times, on the second as well.
Cirelli, who the Canadiens faced in the first round of the playoffs, recorded a career-high in plus-minus rating at +38, took 1,075 faceoffs for the Bolts, and led all Lightning forwards in shorthanded ice time (186:51) on the third-best penalty kill in the league. This is his second consecutive season as a Selke finalist; he finished third last season behind Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart.
As for Nelson, it’s his first nomination, and he helped the Avalanche bring its goals-against total to just 197 goals, a reduction of 34 compared to the previous season. He logged 150:18 of shorthanded ice time, on the league’s best penalty killing unit with a 84.6% success rate. He took a team-leading total of 1,459 faceoffs and also led the Avalanche in faceoff wins with a 50.4% success rate.
All three candidates are deserving of the award, and it will be interesting to see who wins the Professional Hockey Writers Association’s poll. Suzuki is the third Canadiens player to be dominated for a Trophy this season after Cole Caufield for the Lady Bing and Ivan Demidov for the Calder.
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