Despite playing one of the best regular seasons of an already impressive career, Joe Thornton did not receive a nomination for the Selke. The award is given each year to the best all-around forward, a description that couldn’t describe Thornton’s play any better if it tried.
Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar and Ryan Kesler all picked up nominations for the award. Bergeron is regularly a favorite for this award, as is Kopitar. While there’s nothing wrong with any of the nominees per se, leaving Thornton off seems absolutely ludicrous to me.
While there are many ways to best evaluate players for this type of award, the fact is that Thornton controlled possession play better than just about anyone in the league. His fenwick-for percentage of 57.81 left him behind only two players (among players with at least 800 minutes 5v5): Tanner Pearson and Dustin Brown, neither of whom played the type of competition that Jumbo faced.
Anze Kopitar sits just behind Thornton and Bergeron isn’t far behind, but Kesler is all the way at 52nd on the FF% list. It’s not an end-all-be-all statistic, but I’d be curious to hear what the case for his nomination is and why he deserves it over Thornton. Jumbo was always a long shot to win the award, but it’s a shame to see him left off the nomination list completely.
So it is. He’ll have to get his hardware in the playoffs.
As many of you know, Fear the Fin is an independent site run by Sharks fans for Sharks fans. Help keep Fear the Fin independent by contributing to our