Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, and Panthers winger Sam Reinhart have been named Selke Trophy finalists for the 2024-25 season, the NHL announced.
According to the league, the award is given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” It’s voted on at the end of the regular season by media members, like most other major NHL honors, and has been in circulation since the 1977-78 campaign, with former Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron holding the record with six wins.
Despite the verbiage, the Selke is almost never given out to a pure shutdown forward, at least not anymore. More of a “best two-way forward” than “best defensive forward” honor in reality, Barkov headlines the list as he looks to take home the hardware in back-to-back years and for the third time in his career.
Now a four-time finalist, Barkov’s boxcar stats actually point toward a down year for the Stanley Cup champion Finn. His 1.06 points per game and plus-one rating were both post-COVID lows for the 29-year-old, but he still added 54 blocks, 87 hits, and a 56.5% win rate in the faceoff dot. A look at his possession numbers makes it easy to see why he’s continuously regarded as the game’s best two-way center, though. His 60.8% Corsi share at even strength this year was a career-high and led the team.
Stepping into the finalist’s circle for the first time is Barkov’s cross-state counterpart in Cirelli. The 27-year-old finished fourth in Selke voting in 2019-20 and fifth in 2021-22 but never cracked the top three. That changes this year on the heels of a season full of career-highs for Cirelli, who scored 27 goals, 32 assists, 59 points, and logged a +30 rating in 80 appearances. His 18:41 of ice time per game was also a career-high. While he doesn’t receive Barkov’s 5-on-5 deployment, Cirelli is Tampa’s top penalty-killing forward and finished seventh among forwards in plus-minus this season.
Reinhart is the unlikeliest candidate to win, although it’s not really in his control. A winger hasn’t won the award in over 20 years – the Stars’ Jere Lehtinen was the last to do it in 2003. The 29-year-old finished just outside of being a finalist last year during his career-defining 57-goal campaign, and his nomination means the Panthers are the first team with two Selke finalists in a season since the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in 2007-08. He finished 2024-25 with a 39-42–81 scoring line, a plus-six rating, 103 hits, and a 59.2 CF% in 79 games.
Only Florida and Tampa, most likely Barkov
Great to see Anthony Cirelli finally get recognition for his skill as one of the top defensive forwards. He had a breakout season with a number of career highs. Unfortunately, he was hampered by injuries in the second half of the season & into the playoffs but props to him for fighting through as best he can. He’s a gamer.
Wish they would do this after the playoffs. See who is shutting down the top folks in the crucible of playoffs too. I’d vote for Dubois
Dubois not being a finalist is ridiculous. Beyond Carbery being nominated, yet again no Caps getting recognition. 4 nations part deux.
not really. his possession impacts were awesome and comparable to the three guys here but his point totals make it hard to say he deserve to be here ahead of the others. you can point to cirelli but he was better on draws, plus dubois didn’t see any pk usage for wash
But if the Selke is SUPPOSED to be for the forward who displays the best defensive aspects of the game, point totals shouldn’t matter. Dubois’s line was almost exclusively deployed against the opposing top line.
Hischier > Dubios anyway and he didn’t get a sniff either. Sometimes it’s how the cookie crumbles. Florida is flavour of the decade.