Finally.

Sean Couturier has officially won the Selke award. Awarded to the best defensive forward in the game. After years of quietly being our Selke winner, he offically gets the national nod.

Who else was in the ballot?

As you can probably guess, Patrice Bergeron (BOS) was one of the finalist for the trophy. Patrice has brought the Selke trophy home 4 times and honestly, was afraid this year was going to be #5. I was wrong, thankfully.

Ryan O’Rielly (STL), another finalist, took home the Trophy last season. Oh yeah, along with a Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy, elite.

The Numbers

Just an absolute monster for the Flyers in every aspect of the game, not just defensively. Scoring 22 goals & 37 assists for 59 points in 69 games, thats just a cherry ontop of an already elite, shutodwn #1 center

Finishing the 2019-2020 campaign with a CF% of 58.4 and winning 59.6% of face offs is a recipe for a Selke trophy and oh boy, did he deliver. He brings a calming presence to the top line and PK that nobody else on the team can replace. Losing him for Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs was a huge loss.

We later found out after the Game 7 embarassment, Coots was playing on a sprained MCL. The same injury he scored 3 goals in Game 6 againts the Penguins in 2018. Elite.

It was only a matter of time before Coots’ name was called for the Selke. Would always tell myself it’s a matter of when, not if. Well, that day is finally here.

I’m sure he’d rather be celebrating this award while still playing in the Toronto bubble, nonetheless, enjoy this one Coots, you deserve it.