Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron was named the recipient of the 2022 Frank J. Selke Trophy on Sunday, as announced by the league, and it wasn’t a particularly close vote.
Bergeron, who now holds the league’s record with five Selke Trophies, received 160 of the 192 first-place votes en route to 1,798 total voting points. The Calgary Flames’ Elias Lindholm, who came in second, received 139 fewer first-place votes and was more than doubled in overall voting points (878). The Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov finished third in the voting (10 first-place votes, 746 points).
The Selke Trophy is given annually to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game as judged by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
It was the most decisive margin in any of Bergeron’s five awards, as shared by the NHL Public Relations.
It’s rather comical how three voters believed Bergeron was worthy of fifth place for the honor, but that’s something we’ll move past.
This year’s win elevates Bergeron ahead of Hockey Hall of Fame forward Bob Gainey, who won the award four times as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Bergeron, who previously won the Selke Trophy in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017, is the first player in history to win it five times. It’s prompted many to think the award may be worthy of a new namesake.
