NHL Awards: Top 3 potential Selke Trophy nominees
By Mike Zawisza
NHL Selke Trophy potential nominee: Ryan O’Reilly, St. Louis Blues
The reigning Selke winner is most likely a lock for another nomination this season. Prior to the 2018-19 season, O’Reilly had received Selke votes in every season of his NHL career besides his rookie campaign. There seemed to be an understanding that he was a “really good” two-way player, but not necessarily elite.
It took moving to St. Louis and ushering one of the greatest runs to the postseason for people to finally give him his just desserts.
Given that the Blues have established themselves as one of the league’s elite clubs and on narrative alone, O’Reilly will probably get another nomination.
However, his stats at both ends of the ice have taken a dip. After recording 28 goals and 77 points last season, O’Reilly tallied just 12 goals this season along with 61 points. Obviously, the regular season was cut short and while it’s possible that O’Reilly could have scored another 16 goals in 11 games, it’s pretty unlikely. That being said, 61 points in 71 games is nothing to scoff at, and it places him right among his peers.
O’Reilly’s xG splits also hamper his case a bit this season. His 38.2 xGA is actually higher than his 31.6 xGF and could lead one to believe that without catching a bit of luck (PDO of 102.8) O’Reilly could have been outscored on the ice. Last season, O’Reilly was rocking a 67.9 xGF and saw a difference of +17.5 between xGF and xGA.
There’s still a lot to like about O’Reilly’s two-way game this year, though. The St. Louis center sported a positive Corsi For percentage (51.8), was a stud in the faceoff dot (56.6 FOW %), recorded 69 takeaways and just 22 giveaways (!) and even tallied a shorthanded goal to boot.
O’Reilly also figured in a 3.3 OPS and 2.1 DPS, showing that he can still factor into his team’s success through both offense and defense.
Though this year has been a bit of a step back for O’Reilly, he still has some numbers on his side, and he’s got the narrative too, which is always a plus.