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NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey

By Nick Villano

Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche speaks to the crowd after winning the Calder Memorial Trophy during the 2014 NHL Awards at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on June 24, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche speaks to the crowd after winning the Calder Memorial Trophy during the 2014 NHL Awards at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on June 24, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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St. Louis Blues
Ryan O’Reilly #90 of the St. Louis Blues. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 23. Ryan O’Reilly Selke Trophy 2020

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming. The Selke Trophy is always controversial. It seems like voters tend to go towards the two-way forward who gets a lot of points. This is the description of the Selke Trophy from the NHL itself.

"The Frank J. Selke Trophy is an annual award given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.”"

Funny, don’t see anything about points in that description. Well, it seems like the same players keep getting into the Selke Trophy conversation. Patrice Bergeron is always on that list, and to be fair, he deserves it. Anze Kopitar gets on the list all the time, too. This used to be the Pavel Datsyuk award for a long time. Now, Ryan O’Reilly could take over the award, but just two seasons ago, he was a major snub.

O’Reilly won the award in 2019 in his first year with the St. Louis Blues. That season, he helped lead the Blues all the way to a Stanley Cup win. It was a great story, turning around a team that was in last place in the league and making a run all the way to “glory”.

In 2020, he was just as good, except his impact lasted all season. Of all the players in the league who played 1,000 minutes, only four were on the ice for fewer goals against than O’Reilly. Three of them were O’Reilly’s teammates, who all really help each other lift their game. O’Reilly allowed 33 goals on 1,000 minutes of ice time.

He was also proficient on the penalty kill. He played 152 minutes when the other team had a man advantage. That’s more than anyone else on the Blues, even the defensemen. He had such an impact on this team, he definitely deserved to win the Selke Trophy.

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