It’s been a while since Montreal Canadiens fans were excited about the NHL Awards. And to be fair, they haven’t had a frontrunner in quite some time.
Sure, there was the year that Carey Price won just about everything from the Hart to the Vezina, but that was nearly a decade ago.
With that said, despite the team’s mediocre performance so far this season, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki appears to be in the race for the Selke Trophy, awarded to the league’s best defensive forward.
And according to new projections in an article by Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, the 24-year-old is actually a top candidate.
Crediting Suzuki’s excellent play for Montreal being able to maintain an above .500 record (17-17-5), Luszczyszyn, who specializes in analytics, points out that “in tough minutes, Suzuki has been on the ice for 2.29 expected goals against this season, 0.59 fewer than team average.”
The Athletic
The author’s ranking system takes the following elements into account: “forwards who play over 16 minutes per game, receive 15% of their team’s short-handed minutes and face above-average forward competition, ranked by their defensive rating.”
With all that tallied up, Suzuki currently leads all potential candidates, which include Jordan Staal, Alexander Barkov, and Anze Kopitar, with a defensive rating of +3.
“It’s easier to look good defensively relative to a bad defensive team, but the fact Suzuki’s raw numbers don’t look out of place next to some of the other top defensive forwards here on better teams deserves a lot of credit,” Luszczyszyn added.
Along with some stellar defensive play, Suzuki, a three-time All-Star, is on pace for a record campaign. Currently skating on a line with Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, the London native has also been Montreal’s top offensive contributor, netting 12 goals and 34 assists over 39 games.
Hopefully, he can keep up the good work — on both ends of the ice.
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