{"id":458429,"date":"2024-12-13T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=458429"},"modified":"2024-12-13T14:00:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T19:00:09","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-forward-could-be-awarded-selke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/13\/toronto-maple-leafs-forward-could-be-awarded-selke\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Could Be Awarded Selke"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have come a long way defensively. They are a top-five team when it comes to keeping the puck out of their net. There are plenty of factors within this Leafs team that make them as good as they are defensively. One is the outstanding goaltending<\/a> that Anthony Stolarz<\/a> and Joseph Woll<\/a> have provided between the pipes. Toronto also has a strong and solid defence corps<\/a>, thanks to the offseason additions by general manager Brad Treliving. However, the defensive work by Mitch Marner<\/a> shouldn’t be ignored.<\/p>\n

Marner in the Selke Race<\/h2>\n

Everybody knows about Marner<\/a>‘s offensive abilities. The right-winger leads the Maple Leafs in scoring with 38 points and is among the league’s point leaders. While he has been a threat for the Leafs, he’s been a regular threat-diffuser for Toronto<\/a> as well. It seems that with every passing season, the 27-year-old improves on the defensive side of the puck. Now into his ninth NHL season, Marner may have reached the Selke Trophy conversation.<\/p>\n

The Selke Trophy<\/a> is awarded “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” Twice in the last four seasons, Marner has been a top 10 vote for the Selke Trophy. Furthermore, he was a Selke finalist in the 2022-23 campaign for his defensive efforts. Voted ahead of Marner were retired Boston Bruins<\/a> centre Patrice Bergeron<\/a> and Nico Hischier<\/a> of the New Jersey Devils<\/a>. That was the sixth time Bergeron<\/a> won the award, the most by any player in NHL history.<\/p>\n

With the Selke votes to back it up, Marner’s defensive work is noticeable around the league. Former Maple Leaf Nick Kypreos<\/a> believes that there isn’t another forward that keeps up with his defensive abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has turned himself into the NHL\u2019s best two-way forward this season\u2014and there isn\u2019t a close second,” Kypreos said. “At this point, the value he brings to the Leafs on the defensive end is the only thing holding him back from having a legitimate shot at winning an Art Ross<\/a> Trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coaching staff has lots of trust in Marner’s defensive ability. So much so that he has quarterbacked Toronto’s top power-play<\/a> unit several times.<\/p>\n

A Season of Firsts<\/h3>\n

If Marner was able to secure himself the Selke Trophy this season, it would be the first individual award he’s ever earned. As mentioned, he was close to taking home the Selke on multiple occasions. In addition, his name has been in the mix for the Lady Byng Trophy<\/a> as the player who exemplifies sportsmanlike and gentlemanly conduct while playing at a high standard. Marner was fourth in voting<\/a> for that award in the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n

It’s no surprise that the Markham, Ont. native takes pride in his defensive game when considering who his hockey idol was. Growing up a Leafs fan, Marner was a huge fan of Doug Gilmour<\/a>, it’s the reason his cap hit is $10.903M<\/a>, in honour of No. 93.\u00a0 Gilmour played six full seasons for the Maple Leafs between 1992-1997 and captained the team<\/a> for three of those seasons. After the 1992-93 campaign, Gilmour was given the Selke Trophy, becoming the first Leafs player to claim the award.\u00a0It’s no secret that Marner will want to accomplish what his favourite player has done. If he does, he’ll join Gilmour as the only Maple Leafs to win this award.<\/p>\n

In addition to a chance at winning the Selke for the first time, Marner could score 100 points<\/a> for the first time this season. He’s come close in several different seasons. However, he couldn’t get closer in 2022-23 when he recorded 99 points in 80 games. This year, he’s on pace to finally hit that milestone. With 10 goals and 38 points in 29 games so far, the former London Knight is projected to hit 106 points.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs have come a long way defensively. They are a top-five team when it comes to keeping the puck out of their net. There are plenty of factors within this Leafs team that make them as good as they are defensively. One is the outstanding goaltending that Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":458463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548],"tags":[1784,229,1146,922,1156,1492,5868,7510],"class_list":["post-458429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-doug-gilmour","tag-mitch-marner","tag-nhl-awards","tag-nico-hischier","tag-patrice-bergeron","tag-selke-trophy","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-defence"],"modified_by":"Andre Leal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458464,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458429\/revisions\/458464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}