Friday night, Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron learned his fate in the Frank. J. Selke Trophy voting. Bergeron finished second in the voting to Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, who won with 780 points.
Barkov finished with 62 first-place votes, compared to 15 for Bergeron. Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights, who finished third in the voting was the only other one to finish with double-digit first-place votes with 11.
Aleksander Barkov wins the Selke Trophy #notunderrated
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) June 19, 2021
Mitch Marner finished 10th overall I’m votes. Zach Hyman tied for 23rd. Auston Matthews tied for 27th. pic.twitter.com/iYELCTk1Pr
According to the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), 100 ballots were returned, which meant that 11 ballots did not include Bergeron. I get it, not giving him a first-place is vote or even a second-place vote is one thing, but to keep off the ballot and not even give him a fifth-place vote is, well………. interesting to say the least.
One PHWA voter revealed his ballot Saturday, which did not include the Bruins’ Bergeron.
So after word got out that Bergeron was left off of 11 ballots, people were wondering who those voters were. Saturday morning, one voter, Mark Lazerus, a senior writer for The Athletic, revealed his ballot on Twitter.
I was out of pocket when the Selke was awarded last night. In the interest of full disclosure, my ballot:
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) June 19, 2021
1. Philip Danault
2. Aleksander Barkov
3. Joel Eriksson Ek
4. Mitch Marner
5. Mark Stone
So there you go, his “official ballot”. To his credit, he did get Barkov and Stone in the top-five, I guess. To add insult to injury for himself, he doubled down shortly after with this tweet.
Patrice Bergeron is a wonderful player, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He is not, however, the only two-way player in the game.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) June 19, 2021
He is correct, Bergeron is a first-ballot Hall of Famer when the time comes. No doubt. He is also correct when he says that Bergeron is not the only two-way player in the game. He’s not. But to not include him in the top FIVE on his ballot is stunning. It really is.
My colleague Matt Hawkins wrote on Saturday that Bergeron was robbed of a record fifth Selke Trophy. He was. The stats don’t line.
Next season, barring injury or something else, there’s a good chance Bergeron finds himself as a finalist for an 11th consecutive season. Hopefully, this time, if he warrants it, the PHWA do the right thing and vote him the winner. I’m sure Lazerus will be at the center of attention when it comes down to the voting in 2022.