Marner was one of three players nominated for the trophy, handed out annually to the NHL's best defensive forward.

Just before the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their second-round playoff series with the Florida Panthers, Mitch Marner was named one of three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy.

Voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association members, the award is handed out annually to the NHL's best defensive forward. 

"I think it's very fitting," Auston Matthews said of Marner's nomination. "He's an amazing player offensively, but defensively he's really coming into his own, especially the last couple of years and that's very well deserved."

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It's the first time Marner has been nominated for the award. In addition to establishing career highs in assists (69) and points (99), the dynamic forward is also deployed regularly on the club's top penalty-kill unit.

"It's cool," Marner said following his team's 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 1. "But the sport is done with five guys on the ice. It's kudos to a lot of the guys around me."

Marner's ability to anticipate plays is what got him on the radar for his very first nomination, where he will go up against multiple-time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron and New Jersey Devils forward Nico Hischier. Marner led the NHL in takeaways with 104, 12 more than the next highest of any player (Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel).

"It always feels like he's two or three steps (ahead). I think he just reads the play so well, Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano said of Marner. "You'll see so many times in a game where you think 'What's Mitchy doing over there?' But he's picking off the pass that he's reading the play ahead of two or three of us. He's been great all year and he continues to do that offensively."

It should be noted that takeaways are a very subjective stat, but Marner's ability to be consistent on both ends of the ice helped the Leafs keep a form of consistency to their game all season long. But Marner is just the seventh player in history to record over 100 takeaways in the season since the statistic was tracked in 1997-98. 

Marner's play helped Toronto improve collectively as a defense. They had the seventh-best goals allowed per game at 2.68, improving from their 19th positioning in 2021-22 (3.03 goals allowed per game).

Earlier in the season, Marner set a franchise record with a 23-game point streak, smashing through the previous record of 18 that was jointly held by Darryl Sittler and Ed Olczyk.

If Marner wins the award, he'd become the first Toronto Maple Leaf since Doug Gilmour to do so. Gilmour is a player Marner, Thornhill, Ontario native, grew up idolizing. 

The NHL Award winners will be revealed June 26 in Nashville.

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