Tomorrow, the NHL will be announcing the 3 finalists for the Frank J Selke Trophy. This award is given to a forward who demonstrates the defensive component of the game. Today, I am going to make my case for why Montreal Canandiens centerman Phillip Danault deserves to be one of those 3 nominees.
The NHL award nominees are voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. It is compiled of writers from newspapers, websites, magazines, etc, and has around 180 members. Last season Danault finished 7th in Selke voting, after a very strong year defensively. This season he has continued his torrid pace and continues to play a key role defensively for the Habs.
I’m going to list off a ton of statistics, that further prove my point for Danault to be a Selke nominee.
As of March 8th, Danault has accumilated 47 points. 43 of those points have come at 5-on-5. That puts him 16th among NHL centers, but more than the 3 most recent Selke winners. Ryan O’Reilly (41 5-on-5 points), Anze Kopitar (40 5-on-5 points), and Patrice Bergeron (34 5-on-5 points).
When it comes to assists at 5-on-5 Danault has been phenomenal. Tied with Connor McDavid for 14th with 31 assists. He’s also ahead of a bunch of other NHL stars for assists at 5-on-5. Mark Stone (30), Nikita Kucherov (30), David Pastrnak (29), Steven Stamkos (28), Sean Couturier (28), Aleksander Barkov (28), Anze Kopitar (27), Jack Eichel (26), and Patrice Bergeron (16).
Danault is 18th among NHL forwards with a +/- of +18. He also is 3rd among centers for shorthanded ice time with 175:19. He has blocked 37 shots, and generated 37 turnovers.
Danault has taken the 6th most amount of faceoffs in the NHL with 1336, winning 728 of them, good for a 54.5% faceoff percentage.
Here are his splits for each zone in the faceoff circle.
- Offensive Zone: Taken: 368. Won: 210. Lost: 158. FO%: 57.1%.
- Neutral Zone: Taken: 443. Won: 251. Lost: 192. FO%: 56.7%.
- Defensive Zone: Taken: 525. Won: 267. Lost: 258. FO%: 50.9%.
Finally, heading into the 2020 NHL playoff qualifying round series vs Pittsburgh, Danault had plenty of success against the Penguins in the faceoff circle this season.
- vs Malkin: Taken: 27. Won: 16. FO%: 59.3%.
- vs Crosby: Taken: 7. Won: 5. FO%: 71.4%.
- vs Aston-Reese: Taken: 1. Won: 1. FO%: 100%.
- vs Rodrigues: Taken: 2. Won: 2. FO%: 100%.
- vs Guentzel: Taken: 2. Won: 1. FO%: 50%.
Note: Jake Guentzel is a left winger, those 2 faceoffs against Danault were due to a teammate being kicked out of the faceoff dot.
Phillip Danault continues to prove that he is among the best 2-way centers in the NHL, and is improving year after year. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see if he will be nominated for the Selke Trophy.
Thanks for reading!
-Cooper.