Here are the nominees for the Frank J. Selke Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game.
Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Datsyuk, who was also nominated for the Lady Byng trophy this year, led the league in both takeaways and plus/minus rating, with 144 and plus-40 respectively.
Of course, he had a career high 97 points, which shows what a great all-around player Datsyuk is. He was also great in the faceoff circle, winning 453 of his 833 draws, which equates to better than 54 percent. He won better than 56 percent of his 845 faceoffs last season.
Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings
Zetterberg, another Red Wing is a big reason why the Wings are currently one game away from the Stanley Cup finals.
He had a plus-30 rating, 666 faceoff wins, and 53 takeaways. Zetterberg averaged 2:09 of shorthanded ice time per game, compared to Datsyuk's 1:47 per game.
"He's as good a two-way hockey player as there is in the League, and he might very well be the best,"Detroit coach Mike Babcock said of Zetterberg. "We match him up every night. He's a will guy. In the end, he's more determined than you and he's going to win out. That's a good thing to have."
John Madden, New Jersey Devils
Madden, a former winner of this trophy, was only a plus-1 this season, yet he was on a Devils team that was not very good offensively.
He won 786 of 1,463 faceoffs for a 53.7 winning percentage. He also had 71 takeaways.
"John is one of those guys that since Day 1 have played extremely well for this team," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "He's done everything that I've asked a player to do."
John Madden seems to be consistently on this list, yet the plus-1 really bothers me. I understand that the Devils did not score much, but you should at least have a plus/minus rating above plus-10 in my opinion to be on this list of nominees.
Zetterberg is a great penalty killer, and it's hard to choose whether he or Datsyuk deserve this award more. They both had fantastic plus/minus ratings, great faceoff percentages, and a good amount of takeaways. However, because of Datsyuk's staggering number of takeaways this season, I award the 2008 Frank J. Selke Memorial trophy to Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings.
comments (2) write a comment »
write a new comment
4 months ago
Datsyuk and Zetterberg are absolutely amazing but I think Madden will win it. Coming from a Rangers' fan, that says alot.
4 months ago
Idk, I think Zetterberg could run away with it, he's pretty damn good
write a new comment