The winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the 2025-26 season is Nick Suzuki of the Montreal Canadiens. The trophy was originally meant to be awarded to “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” though in recent history it has been a recognition of the best complete-game forwards in the NHL, those who play an effective defensive style but also contribute to their team’s offence.
It was a big day for the Canadiens’ top line as Cole Caufield won the Lady Byng Trophy as well, given for “to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability,” as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
The two actually surprised each other with the news.
It was a landslide victory for Suzuki, who ended up with 151 of the 198 first-place votes and finished almost 1,300 points ahead of second-place Anthony Cirelli, who had 467 points.
Suzuki took care of the latter with the first triple-digit point total of his career, finishing the 2025-26 regular season with 101 points to rank sixth in the NHL, then adding 16 more in the post-season, which was tied for the third-highest point total in the playoffs when the Montreal Canadiens’ run came to an end in the Eastern Conference Final.
Playing on a team without an established second-line centre, Suzuki faced the top shutdown players from the opposition on a nightly basis. Despite the 10th-toughest deployment among NHL forwards by Evolving-Hockey‘s expected goals above replacement metric, Suzuki finished the season a plus-37.
Suzuki had received votes for the Selke in each of the past two seasons, ranking 13th in the voting on both occasions. This is his first time winning the award, and he becomes the first Canadiens player to claim the honour since Guy Carbonneau in 1991-92.
Caufield was the first Lady Byng Trophy finalist representing the Canadiens since Mats Naslund (1st in 1987-88, 3rd in 1985-86 and 1988-89). The first-time NHL Awards finalist joins Naslund and Toe Blake (1945-46) as Canadiens players to have won the Lady Byng since the trophy was first presented in 1924-25.
The Montreal winger prevailed in a wide-open race in which four players received at least 20 first-place votes. Caufield was the top choice of 45 voters and was named on 113 of the 198 ballots en route to 776 voting points, ahead of five-time Lady Byng finalist and three-time winner Anze Kopitar.
This marks consecutive seasons of Habs players claiming an end-of-season individual award after Lane Hutson was the 2024-25 Calder Trophy recipient as the league’s top rookie.
