Todd Cordell
My pick is Aleksander Barkov. He doesn't get the league-wide recognition he deserves but he is a star in the making and I think he's going to take off this season.
His shot suppression numbers took a bit of a dip last year but in his first two seasons he was solid in that regard and I expect that to be the case this year.
I'm really high on the Panthers - I think they're going to win a lot of games - and Barkov is a big reason why. If the Panthers are as good as I think they can be a lot of eyes will be on Barkov, which should help his case for the Selke. He has flown under the radar for a while but I think those days are over.
Honorable mention: Sean Couturier.
James Tanner The Selke Trophy is perhaps the strangest of all the trophies because defense is perhaps the most subjective and hardest to judge of all things in hockey that we review.
Like most of the awards in 2016 ,the Selke seemed to go to the wrong player. Kopitar is decent, but he's not better defensively than Thornton, Bergeron or Datsyuk and I know a lot of the "stats guys" didn't think it was a very good pick.
One player that often gets mentioned as a should-have-been nominee, is Nino Niederreiter. I don't really think his reputation will get elevated to the point were he actually receives a nomination, but since he was shut-out this year and probably deserves to be more well-known, he's my pick to win it next year.
Recent posts: Who will win the Calder in 2016-17?