Bergeron named Selke finalist for the 11th season in a row

The NHL announced the three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy this morning, and as has been the case for more than a decade, Patrice Bergeron is on the list.

Bergeron is joined by Florida's Aleksandr Barkov, who won last year, and Calgary's Elias Lindholm.

By pretty much every measure that matters, Bergeron should be a shoo-in to win his record-breaking fifth Selke Trophy.

Per the NHL’s and the Bruins’ press releases:

• Bergeron led the league in faceoff wins (991) and win percentage (61.9%).
• Bergeron’s SAT% (the league’s version of puck possession) was 65.1% at 5v5, the best mark since the league started recording that stat.
• Bergeron led the league in shot attempts allowed/60, Corsi For %, xGA per 60, scoring chances against/60, and high-danger attempts against/60.

These are all fancy ways of saying that Bergeron had a pretty dominant defensive season — by some measures, one of the best such seasons in league history.

There’s been a bit of a “someone else needs to win” bias around Bergeron and this award in recent years (it seems ridiculous that he hasn’t won since 2017), but it’s hard to see that continuing this year.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time NHL award voters have done something dumb, so...I guess we’ll see!