The top candidates for the 2024-25 Selke Trophy
At the midway point of the 2024-25 NHL campaign, let the debate begin on which players will deserve to take home hardware at season’s end.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk debated the frontrunners for the Selke Trophy, presented annually to the league’s top defensive forward.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s talk a little bit about the Selke. At times, it can turn into a little bit of a reputation award. That’s not to say Aleksander Barkov doesn’t deserve to be the favorite. He is running away with it when you look at the odds for it. But you had someone else at the top. I’ll let you go first and then I’ll make my point, but give me your Top 3.
Frank Seravalli: Look, I love Aleksander Barkov. Full stop. But he has missed one quarter of the first half. He’s missed 10 games. That means that he would have needed to be, when he has been on the ice, 25 percent better than everyone else, and I just don’t know that that has been the case. But we have to give some love to his teammate in Sam Reinhart who also does a big job on the Florida Panthers’ penalty kill. He is maybe the second-smartest player in the league next to Barkov, which when you think about how well they play together, that’s the makings of something special, pairing up a couple brainiacs. Sean Monahan, what can you say about Monahan and the season he has had for the Columbus Blue Jackets? He leads the Blue Jackets in penalty-killing minutes. He is tied with Jack Eichel for second in the league in five-on-five goal differential. He has been so good. There were certainly some other candidates to put in here in the third spot. I could have gone with – picking someone around the league – Anthony Cirelli has been so good. Nico Hischier. But I am going to go with Anze Kopitar, who is having the best season that no one is talking about. He has taken a lesser role on the penalty kill this season for the Kings, which is a nice thing to take off his plate and make his workload a little bit easier, but he is still a truly dominant player in the NHL when it comes to five-on-five.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: