NHL Awards: Top 3 potential Selke Trophy nominees

NHL Selke Trophy potential nominee: Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers

The most underrated player in hockey doesn’t seem so underrated anymore. After cracking the top five in Selke voting the past two seasons, Barkov looks like a strong candidate to be nominated this year.

Offensively, Barkov saw his production dip from last year, but still managed to rack up 20 goals and 42 assists in 66 games this season. 13 of his 20 goals came at even-strength and he even managed to tally a shorthanded assist as well. Barkov is also arguably the most creative offensive player on this list as well, with a bag full of tricks at his disposal.

The advanced numbers paint an even better picture for Barkov in the offensive zone. His OPS of 4.6 is actually higher than both Couturier’s and O’Reilly’s. Barkov’s 40.5 xGF also slightly outpaces Couturier.

However, Barkov has seen his defensive acumen slip a bit this season. Some of that may be chalked up to the poor goaltending and team defense the Panthers have received this season, but even still, Barkov’s DPS dropped to just 1.4 this season, well behind Couturier and O’Reilly.

And while his xGF is quite high, it’s nearly balanced out by his 37.2 xGA. While that’s still lower than O’Reilly’s, it pales in comparison to Couturier’s as well as a few other players we’ve mentioned throughout the article.

Despite this, Barkov definitely remains a viable candidate. The Panthers center remains more than serviceable in the faceoff dot, winning 54% of his draws and has seen his Corsi For percentage (52.7) climb back into the positives for the first time in two seasons. The Panthers sneaking into the 24-team playoff also helps his case.

If nothing else, it would great to see him named a nominee just so we can stop hearing how underrated he is.

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