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The Boston Bruins have arguably the best two-way center in the entire NHL in Patrice Bergeron. With three Frank J. Selke trophy wins to his name already, Bergeron should be the favorite to win again in 2016. The Selke trophy is awarded to “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” and is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Bergeron has been in the final three in four straight seasons, winning three of the four, including the 2015 Selke trophy.
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The voting was close in 2015, as Bergeron just barely won over Jonathan Toews in a two-horse race. The final votes finished with Bergeron at 1083 points including 75 first place finishes and Jonathan Toews earning 1051 points including 51 first place finishes. The closest in voting to those two was Anze Kopitar who finished with 364 points including five first place finishes. As the NHL has come to expect from Bergeron, he was the league leader in total face-offs with 1,951, face-off wins with 1,175, and win-percentage with 60.2%. In addition to those statistics, Bergeron ranked in the top five of forwards for puck possessions stats such as shot attempt differential (SAT), ratio of player’s on-ice SAT vs. off-ice SAT (SAT Rel%), and SAT in one-goal games in period 1 and 2, tie games in period 3 (SAT Close).
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Patrice Bergeron is continuously at the top of the league in these statistics, especially his face-off statistics. In addition to his defensive prowess, Bergeron has been a very good offensive player throughout his career with two 30 goal seasons, and while that doesn’t affect Selke voting, it’s just a testament to how valuable of a player he is. It can be argued that nobody in the league is relied upon to do so much within one shift as Patrice Bergeron is with the exception of Jonathan Toews.
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The Boston Bruins are going to rely heavily on Patrice Bergeron again in the 2015-16 season to help Tuukka Rask and whichever young defenders make the final line-up to start the season. With more experience than most players on the Bruins, Bergeron is relied upon heavily to keep the scoring chances low and to generate scoring chances with every shift. Patrice Bergeron is one of the NHL’s most unsung heroes among fans, although players around the league know exactly what they’re getting into when they play opposite of him on the ice.
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