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Midseason Selke Trophy picks |
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In this edition of the hotstove we share our midseason picks for the Selke Trophy.
Todd Cordell
Sean Couturier.
He's playing big minutes against top competition each and every night and still garnering spectacular results at both ends of the rink.
Couturier surprisingly ranks 7th in 5v5 goals – none of the players ahead of him carry the kind of defensive responsibility he does – and has as many 5v5 points as the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel and Brad Marchand.
His underlying numbers are fantastic, too, as he ranks 8th among forwards in Corsi For% relative to the team and 16th in Expected Goals For% relative to the team – ahead of Selke competitors like Patrice Bergeron and Anze Kopitar.
Couturier has taken his offensive game up a few notches while maintaining his fantastic defensive play and he deserves to be recognized for it.
Adam French
Anze Kopitar is my choice. Last year he got the "bust" label pretty hard with his massive salary and downturn in goals/points. Kopitar is back this year though. Elite offensively, elite defensively and he has been able to help re-invigorate Dustin Brown's career. The Kings go with Kopitar/Doughty/Quick and Kopitar is playing like a top-5 forward in the NHL again. The results show. He's one of the best face-off men in the league, he runs possession and he's scoring like a star. He's my pick.
However
I think there is a legitimate debate this year for the Selke and I really love it. Bergeron is having a heck of a season (though that 4g 5p night does skew things). Couturier has added scoring to his strong defensive play which will ultimately make him win it in my opinion. Unlikely guys like Brayden Point and Aleksander Barkov are also having fantastic years. Also...ALSO...Blake Wheeler might have some clout to win it as a winger. Marian Hossa forever got short shrifted on Selke voting due to being a winger and Wheeler probably will as well, but he is shockingly strong defensively.
Flip flopping over, I pick Kopitar.
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