Selke Trophy Trivia

Pavel Datsyuk, Ryan Kesler and Jonathan Toews have been recognized as finalists for the Selke Trophy, given annually to the NHL's best defensive forward.

The cumbersome-looking Selke Trophy is named after Frank J. Selke, former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. It was introduced in 1978, making it the youngest of the 5 major NHL awards.

The award may have come to creation only because of Bob Gainey's prominence. He won the first four Selke awards, and probably would have won a couple more had the award existed prior to 1979.

Here's some Selke Trophy trivia. As per usual, we went over this on Twitter @HockeyLegends. For those who missed that, here are the questions now with the answers.

1. While Bob Gainey won the first 4 Selke awards, this man finished runner up three of the four times. Who is he? Answer: Buffalo's Craig Ramsay. Rammer finally won the Selke in 1985. Don Marcotte of the Bruins was the only other run up during Gainey's reign.
2. Which of these players never won the Selke Trophy? Troy Murray? Esa Tikkanen? Rick Meagher? Kris Draper? Answer - Esa Tikkanen had a great reputation as a defensive forward, shutting down his old pal Wayne Gretzky. He finished as runner up 3 times, but never won the Selke. 
3. Name the only player to win the Hart Trophy as MVP and the Selke Trophy. Answer - In 1994 Sergei Fedorov won both the Hart and the Selke. Joe Sakic came close in 2001, winning the Hart and runner up for the Selke.
4. Between Gainey and Guy Carbonneau, Montreal has won the Selke Trophy 7 times. Interestingly, only one of Canadian team has ever had a player win the award? Who is the player and what team did he play for? Answer - Toronto's Doug Gilmour in 1993. 
5. Which of these players did not finish as Selke Trophy runners-up? Doug Jarvis? Bobby Clarke? Ron Sutter? Jari Kurri? Answer - Jarvis, Sutter and Kurri all finished as runners up. Bobby Clarke never did. But he did win the award in 1983.

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By the way, based on reputation I suspect Ryan Kesler, a three time finalist, will get the award in 2011. Which is funny, because most of this past regular season (remember, this is a regular season award specifically for the 2010-11 season) most of the Canucks defensive assignments were handled by the now-injured Manny Malhotra. Kesler is undoubtedly a top defensive forward in the NHL, although this would be a bit of an ironic year for him to win it.