Three Washington Capitals players received recognition in Selke Trophy voting as the league’s top defensive forward, but the award ultimately went to Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki.
The NHL announced Suzuki the winner on Friday, earning 1,726 voting points and appearing on 191 of 198 ballots submitted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, which RMNB is not a part of.
Suzuki was a runaway winner over Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli and Colorado’s Brock Nelson, who finished second and third in voting, respectively.
Tom Wilson, Aliaksei Protas, and Justin Sourdif all received votes for the award, with Wilson finishing 24th (3 third-place votes and 3 fifth-place votes), Protas 29th (1 second-place vote and 1 third-place vote), and Sourdif 33rd (one second-place vote).
Wilson, Protas, Sourdif were among Washington’s best forwards at limiting opponent shot rates – only Hendrix Lapierre saw opponents shoot less, with similar results in expected goals and high-danger chances.
Using Evolving Hockey’s goals-above-replacement (GAR) stat, which breaks down into components, Wilson had a plus-5.1 rating in even-strength defense during the 2025-26 season, while Justin Sourdif was plus-4.4. Meanwhile, Protas, likely getting votes due to reputation, was a minus-3.8 in the statistic.
Wilson and Sourdif placed first and third among Caps forwards in the stat – fourth-line forward Brandon Duhaime was second. In the same stat among the 360 forwards with at least 600 minutes last season, Wilson and Sourdif ranked 7th and 16th, respectively.
2025-26 Selke Trophy Voting
| Rank | Player | Points | (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nick Suzuki, MTL | 1,726 | (151-23-6-7-4) |
| 2. | Anthony Cirelli, TBL | 467 | (10-34-18-10-9) |
| 3. | Brock Nelson, COL | 406 | (4-28-22-16-12) |
| 4. | Mitch Marner, VGK | 356 | (3-27-14-18-13) |
| 5. | Jordan Staal, CAR | 310 | (7-14-19-12-11) |
| 6. | Shane Pinto, OTT | 288 | (8-7-19-16-16) |
| 7. | Jack Eichel, VGK | 215 | (1-10-15-15-15) |
| 8. | Sebastian Aho, CAR | 182 | (4-7-15-4-6) |
| 9. | Nico Hischier, NJD | 149 | (2-10-7-5-9) |
| 10. | Yanni Gourde, TBL | 130 | (1-6-8-10-8) |
| 11. | Noah Cates, PHI | 123 | (1-6-2-13-22) |
| 12. | Joel Eriksson Ek, MIN | 86 | (0-2-9-7-6) |
| 13. | Brandon Hagel, TBL | 85 | (1-5-6-2-4) |
| 14. | Alex Tuch, BUF | 75 | (0-3-3-10-9) |
| 15. | Nick Schmaltz, UTA | 69 | (0-1-5-10-7) |
| 16. | Sam Reinhart, FLA | 67 | (1-1-5-6-7) |
| 17. | Ryan O’Reilly, NSH | 61 | (1-3-2-5-5) |
| 18. | Anze Kopitar, LAK | 50 | (0-2-2-7-5) |
| 19. | Nathan MacKinnon, COL | 32 | (0-3-1-2-0) |
| 20. | Michael Amadio, OTT | 31 | (0-2-1-1-9) |
| 21. | Mark Stone, VGK | 22 | (1-0-2-0-2) |
| 22. | Dylan Larkin, DET | 21 | (0-0-1-5-1) |
| 23. | Charlie Coyle, CBJ | 19 | (0-0-2-3-0) |
| 24. | Tom Wilson, WSH | 18 | (0-0-3-0-3) |
| 25. | Valeri Nichushkin, COL | 16 | (0-0-2-2-0) |
| 26. | Jordan Kyrou, STL | 14 | (0-1-0-2-1) |
| 27. | Ryan McLeod, BUF | 13 | (1-0-0-1-0) |
| 28. | Roope Hintz, DAL | 13 | (0-1-1-0-1) |
| 29. | Aliaksei Protas, WSH | 12 | (0-1-1-0-0) |
| 30. | Sidney Crosby, PIT | 10 | (1-0-0-0-0) |
| 31. | Dylan Cozens, OTT | 10 | (0-0-2-0-0) |
| 32. | Matt Boldy, MIN | 8 | (0-0-1-1-0) |
| 33. | Justin Sourdif, WSH | 7 | (0-1-0-0-0) |
| 34. | Blake Coleman, CGY | 6 | (0-0-1-0-1) |
| t-35. | Leon Draisaitl, EDM | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) |
| Jake Guentzel, TBL | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) | |
| Parker Kelly, COL | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) | |
| 38. | Jack Drury, COL | 5 | (0-0-0-1-2) |
| 39. | Seth Jarvis, CAR | 4 | (0-0-0-1-1) |
| t-40. | Claude Giroux, OTT | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) |
| Pontus Holmberg, TBL | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Bo Horvat, NYI | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Clayton Keller, UTA | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Ilya Mikheyev, CHI | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Pavel Zacha, BOS | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| 46. | Alexander Wennberg, SJS | 2 | (0-0-0-0-2) |
| t-47. | Mikael Backlund, CGY | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) |
| Lawson Crouse, UTA | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Christian Dvorak, PHI | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Mark Kastelic, BOS | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Martin Necas, COL | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Jean-Gabriel Pageau, NYI | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Mikko Rantanen, DAL | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) |
(10-7-5-3-1 points allocation)
Suzuki, 26, becomes the first Montreal Canadiens player to win the Selke since Guy Carbonneau in 1992 and joins Carbonneau and Bob Gainey as the only players in franchise history to receive the award.
The Canadiens captain played all 82 games for the fifth straight season and was a major driver behind Montreal’s strongest campaign in more than a decade. The Canadiens posted 106 points and allowed their fewest goals in a full season since 2018-19. At five-on-five, Montreal outscored opponents 94-58 with Suzuki on the ice.
Suzuki learned of the award in a surprise reveal orchestrated by teammate Cole Caufield inside the Canadiens locker room. Believing he was helping present Caufield with the Lady Byng Trophy, Suzuki instead discovered that he was the Selke winner.
