We’re a month into the NHL season. Didn’t that go fast? The Winnipeg Jets are almost undefeated while the Nashville Predators have still to hit their stride. As we approach the all-important unofficial “pole position” of American Thanksgiving in the NHL season, Greg Wyshynski of ESPN decided to take a way too early poll for various NHL awards by asking a sample of voter from the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
For The Selke Trophy, Wyshynski’s poll had reigning winner Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers winning once again with Nico Hischier of the New Jersey Devils and Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes as fellow finalists. One anonymous voter chose Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights as the winner with the explanation that it’s “high time we give this trophy to a winger”. Stone is a two time finalist for the award in 2020-2021 (a third place finish) and a second place finish in 2018-2019.
Up until then, we had never really given thought to the bias towards centers winning the Selke. After all, for the past decade and a half, everyone assumed the trophy would be going to either Patrice Bergeron or Pavel Datsyuk at the season's end. But yes this previously overlooked factoid has been confirmed as no winger has won the Selke since Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars won back in 2002-2003. Lehtinen was also a back-to-back winner 1997-1998 and the Stars’ Stanley Cup winning season in 1998-1999.
Let's try to compare Lehtinen’s 2002-2003 season to Mark Stone's as best as we can. That season saw Lehtinen finish with 48 points in 80 games, hardly an offensive powerhouse, but with a +39 rating. Plus/minus surely carried more weight back then than it does in today’s advanced stat’s age.
The closest Mark Stone has gotten to 80 games in a season in a Vegas sweater was back in 2019-2020 when he played 65 games and finished with 63 points. We’ll mention he finished with a +19 rating that season for the sake of continuing our comparison. Stone’s tenure with Vegas has been injury-shortened multiple times since to the point of internet speculation it’s all a part of cap trickery on the part of Vegas. Stone is currently out with a “day-to-day” injury and any hope of him making a Selke trophy bid hinges on his durability.
Since the 2005 lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season a winger has only been named finalist for the award six times. The aforementioned Lehtinen was once again a finalist in 2005-2006, losing to Rod Brind’Amour of the Hurricanes. Jay Pandolfo of the Devils lost to Brind’Amour a year later as well. David Backes, then of the St. Louis Blues, would be a finalist in 2011-2012 and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs was a finalist in 2022-2023. The other two winger appearances were Stone’s previously mentioned nominations.
Left-wingers have the edge over right wingers when it comes to Selke nominations with 22 compared to 17, which seems a bit odd considering the only wingers in recent memory to be nominated were all right-wingers. When the award was first introduced in 1977-1978, left winger Bob Gainey of the Montreal Canadiens won the award four times in a row. Craig Ramsey, also a left-wing, of the Buffalo Sabres was a finalist five straight times starting that season. Don Marcotte of the Bruins was a finalist those first two seasons.
A single nomination did not go to a non-left wing player until the award’s third year when Don Luce of the Bruins broke the Selke glass ceiling for centers. Ever since then a center has been nominated or won every year except for the 1990-1991 season. Dirk Graham, the Blackhawks' left winger, would win that season, with Esa Tikkanen of the Edmonton Oilers and fellow Blackhawk Steve Larmer as the other two finalists.
Why the sudden dropoff in winger Selke nominations? The 1990s and early 2000s were a time of declining offense in the NHL (remember it was called the “dead puck” era”) where defensive responsibilities were shared and commonplace. The most well-known users of the infamous “neutral zone” trap commonly cited as a culprit were the New Jersey Devils who saw center John Madden (not the football one) win the 2000-2001 Selke and receive nominations in 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 seasons.
As offense rebounded in the post 2005 lockout era maybe wingers had fewer defensive responsibilities. A two-way forwards’ role as a play-maker often goes hand in hand with the center position as the wingers are the ones tasked with the shot that beats the goaltender. In today’s NHL a center simply has more defensive responsibilities than his linemates.
Mark Stone seems to be the exception. Travis Konecny of the Flyers has been an underrated two-way winger as well. Maybe this will be the year only the tenth winger in Selke Award history is victorious.