Selke Trophy: Patrice Bergeron
Ok, so the Professional Hockey Writers Assocation (PHWA) somehow managed to butcher this award, and by butcher, I don’t mean not giving Patrice Bergeron the award, which he actually should have won, but also, somehow, someway, 11 voters leave him completely off their ballot? Still rather stunning if you ask me.
Anyway, Bergeron once against at 35 years old proved that he’s still the top two-way center in the NHL. You have probably don’t need to be stuffed with stats, which I really won’t do here, as my colleague Matt Hawkins did a nice job over the weekend of breaking the stats between Bergy and the winner, Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers.
Bergeron not only was a tremendous two-way player 5-on-5, but he also formed one of the best penalty-killing tandems with Marchand in the NHL and when there was a big faceoff at any point in most games, coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t have to think twice about which center he was sending over the boards to take it.
While the PHWA somehow glossed over Bergeron’s 2020-21 season, we won’t. His name should be in the NHL record books for winning the Trophy for the fifth time. Next season, barring an injury or something crazy, Bergy should be a finalist for an 11th straight season and next season could be the year passes Bob Gainey for the record.