Patrice Bergeron Becomes 5th Player to Win Selke Trophy 3 or More Times

Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron received his third Selke Trophy on Wednesday, joining Pavel Datsyuk, Guy Carbonneau, Jere Lehtinen and Bob Gainey (four times) as the only three-time winners of the award for the forward who best excels in defensive aspects of the game, per Sportsnet Stats.

The other finalists were Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar and Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews, who got his own Selke Trophy after the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign.

Bergeron has now received the honor in three of the past four seasons thanks to a mixture of durability, excellent play, reputation, statistical success and team success.

Although his 2014-15 campaign was impressive in terms of durability (81 games), Bergeron finished the season with his worst plus-minus (plus-two) since 2008-09, and the Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07.

He still topped 50 points for a fifth time in the last six seasons, having fallen short only during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign.

Set to turn 30 on July 24, Bergeron still has plenty of time to match and surpass Gainey's record of four Selke Trophies. Gainey earned the honor in the first four seasons it was awarded, from 1977-78 to 1980-81.

Datsyuk is the only other player to win the Selke in three consecutive seasons, but Bergeron, Rod Brind'Amour, Lehtinen and Carbonneau all took the honor in back-to-back campaigns.