When Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury during training camp, the Selke Trophy was suddenly up for grabs.
Nick Suzuki has made a compelling case for himself to fill Barkov’s skates as the NHL’s top defensive forward one month into the season. Montreal’s captain and No. 1 centre has been a force at both ends for the Atlantic Division leaders. On Saturday, Suzuki (15 games) became the fastest Canadiens player to reach the 20-point mark in a season since Saku Koivu (14 games) in 1996-97. He also has been dinged for just four goals against across more than 200 minutes of ice time at 5-on-5.
“Everybody knows how well (Suzuki) does with the puck,” Canadiens forward Cole Caufield told reporters last month. “But his play away from the puck, he’s definitely pretty annoying to play against in practice, and I know most teams don’t like playing against him.”
Suzuki, who received 10 votes and finished 13th for the Selke Trophy last season, is a disruptor on the defensive side of the puck. He leads all forwards with 51 puck-battle wins at 5-on-5 and is among the best forwards at blocking passes, especially in the neutral zone, where he is tied for 11th in that category.
The Canadiens suffer when Suzuki takes a breather. Their expected-goal rate at 5-on-5 drops from 56.6 per cent to 48.1 per cent when Suzuki is off the ice.
By definition, the Selke Trophy is awarded “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” But the spirit of the award has morphed over the years to honour the most well-rounded forward. Seventeen of the past 20 Selke Trophy recipients have averaged at least 0.75 points per game. (The combined average of the past 20 winners is 0.94 points per game.)
In that respect, Suzuki, who is averaging 1.33 points per game, more than meets the criteria. His 12-game point streak, which stretched from Oct. 9 to Nov. 4, is the longest in the league so far this season.
Suzuki, along with Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, form one of the league’s most dominant forward lines, outscoring opponents 11-3 and generating nearly 60 per cent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. (That is an improvement from the 52.5 xGF% they had last season.)
For the Canadiens’ top line, the best defence is an overwhelming offence. Montreal has generated 20 minutes of offensive-zone possession time at 5-on-5 with the Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky line on the ice. That ranks second behind only Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas (21:58).
“Our collective game’s helping me out a lot,” Suzuki told reporters last month about playing with Caufield and Slafkovsky. “We’ve got a lot of chemistry.”
One potential sticking point for Selke Trophy voters, as explained by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn, is that Suzuki does not kill penalties. Suzuki has played six shorthanded minutes all season (24 seconds per game). Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk (45 seconds per game in 2009-10 and 40 seconds per game in 2010-11) and Toronto's Auston Matthews (43 seconds per game in 2023-24) are the only Selke Trophy finalists in the salary cap era (since 2005-06) who have averaged less than one minute on the penalty kill per game. Datsyuk won the award in 2010.
The Canadiens lean heavily on forwards Jake Evans and Josh Anderson to kill penalties to keep Suzuki fresh, so it seems unlikely that he will play meaningful shorthanded minutes this season. If Suzuki were to win the Selke Trophy despite not playing on the penalty kill, it would reflect his dominance in all other areas of the game.
The Selke Trophy is not the only honour Suzuki could receive this season. At this rate, it will be difficult for Team Canada to leave Suzuki off of its roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics.
“I can play offensively, I can play defensively, penalty kill, power play, whatever they need,” Suzuki told reporters at Team Canada’s orientation camp in August. “I’m a really good tool that way that can play anywhere in the lineup, so (I’m) just (going to) try to show my versatility throughout the season and try to give myself the best shot.”
Based on his impressive start, this is shaping up to be a statement season for Suzuki.
All stats via Sportlogiq
