The NHL announced the finalist for the Selke Award Wednesday and the Red Wings will once again be represented.
Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk will have a chance to win his fourth consecutive Selke Award which honors “…the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game”.
The other two finalist up for the award this year is Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler and Chicago captain Jonathan Toews.
Toews finished the regular season with 76 points and finished second in the League this season with 93 takeaways. Kesler finished the season with 73 points and was among the top face-off men in the league at 57.4 percent.
Even though Datsyuk missed some time this season due to injury he is still expected to give Toews and Kelser some stiff competition for the award. Even though some of his defensive numbers such as takeaways, a category he led in three of the previous four seasons, were down he finished the season a plus-11, won 54.6 percent of his face-offs and according to NHL.com was better than a point per game player. Datsyuk finished the season with 23 goals and 36 assists.
The Selke Award will be handed out at the NHL Awards on June 22nd in Las Vegas.
Source: NHL.com
