Selke Trophy Trivia

Congratulations to 2014 Selke Trophy finalists Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews. Their excellence at both ends of the ice is obvious as this award perhaps is evolving from best defensive forward to best all around 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 Sakiccame 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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