For years, Nic Dowd has provided timely offense for the Washington Capitals despite serving as the team’s fourth-line center and facing heavily defensive assignments.
Now, after posting his fourth-consecutive double-digit goals and third-straight 20-plus points campaign, Dowd is getting some recognition for his two-way play.
Dowd tied with five other players for 30th in voting for the 2024 Selke Trophy — awarded to the forward who “best excels in the defensive aspects of the game. The award-winner typically is a two-way player who can also put up a lot of points the other way. Dowd got one fourth-place vote, tying Brandon Hagel, Alex Kerfoot, Jordan Martinook, Connor McDavid, and Mika Zibanejad with three points each.
The PHWA, which RMNB is not a part of, votes for the annual award.
The Huntsville, Alabama native had 22 points (12g, 10a) in 64 games while averaging a career-high 15:12 of ice time per night. Dowd received a career-high 89.71 percent of his zone starts outside the offensive zone under rookie head coach Spencer Carbery.
The winner of this year’s award was Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, taking home the honors for the second time in his career. Barkov received 165 first-place votes on 194 ballots. The Finnish pivot posted 80 points (23g, 57a) in 73 games and won 57.3 percent of his faceoffs. Barkov also placed fifth among NHL forwards in plus-minus with a +33 rating.
Jordan Staal, Auston Matthews, Sam Reinhart, and Anze Kopitar rounded out the top five.
Selke Trophy voting
| Rank | Player | Points | (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th) |
| 1. | Aleksander Barkov, FLA | 1817 | (165-19-5-3-0) |
| 2. | Jordan Staal, CAR | 539 | (4-38-28-22-27) |
| 3. | Auston Matthews, TOR | 514 | (2-36-26-31-19) |
| 4. | Sam Reinhart, FLA | 440 | (12-18-27-14-17) |
| 5. | Anze Kopitar, LAK | 440 | (0-24-36-24-20) |
| 6. | Roope Hintz, DAL | 315 | (2-21-18-15-13) |
| 7. | Adam Lowry, WPG | 308 | (0-14-19-30-25) |
| 8. | Seth Jarvis, CAR | 152 | (0-10-7-13-8) |
| 9. | Sidney Crosby, PIT | 85 | (2-1-3-12-7) |
| 10. | Joel Eriksson Ek, MIN | 65 | (0-3-5-5-4) |
| 11. | Sebastian Aho, CAR | 52 | (1-3-3-1-3) |
| 12. | Jason Dickinson, CHI | 38 | (0-1-3-1-13) |
| 13. | Nick Suzuki, MTL | 30 | (0-1-0-5-8) |
| 14. | Jason Robertson, DAL | 28 | (1-2-0-1-1) |
| 15. | J.T. Miller, VAN | 28 | (1-1-1-2-0) |
| 16. | Vincent Trocheck, NYR | 26 | (1-0-3-0-1) |
| 17. | Mitch Marner, TOR | 23 | (1-0-1-2-2) |
| 18. | William Karlsson, VGK | 20 | (1-0-0-1-7) |
| 19. | Nico Hischier, NJD | 19 | (0-1-1-2-1) |
| 20. | Mikael Backlund, CGY | 15 | (1-0-1-0-0) |
| 21. | Blake Coleman, CGY | 13 | (0-0-2-1-0) |
| 22. | Charlie Coyle, BOS | 11 | (0-1-0-0-4) |
| t-23. | Anthony Cirelli, TBL | 7 | (0-0-1-0-2) |
| Conor Garland, VAN | 7 | (0-0-1-0-2) | |
| 25. | Robert Thomas, STL | 6 | (0-0-0-2-0) |
| 26. | Elias Pettersson, VAN | 6 | (0-0-0-1-3) |
| t-27. | Jamie Benn, DAL | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) |
| Brad Marchand, BOS | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) | |
| Pavel Zacha, BOS | 5 | (0-0-1-0-0) | |
| t-30. | Nic Dowd, WSH | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) |
| Brandon Hagel, TBL | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Alex Kerfoot, ARI | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Jordan Martinook, CAR | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Connor McDavid, EDM | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| Mika Zibanejad, NYR | 3 | (0-0-0-1-0) | |
| 36 | Ryan O’Reilly, NSH | 2 | (0-0-0-0-2) |
| t-37. | Jesper Bratt, NJD | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) |
| Kevin Fiala, LAK | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Tyson Foerster, PHI | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Scott Laughton, PHI | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) | |
| Nathan MacKinnon, COL | 1 | (0-0-0-0-1) |
* (10-7-5-3-1 points allocation)
The only Capitals player to win the award in NHL history is Doug Jarvis, who was awarded the trophy for his play during the 1983-84 season. Jarvis, Bobby Gould, and Kelly Miller are the only Capitals to finish as finalists in other years.
The NHL’s full press release is below:
Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov Wins Selke Trophy
NEW YORK (May 18, 2024) – Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov is the 2023-24 recipient of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, recognizing “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Barkov is a Selke winner for the second time in his career, having become the first winner in franchise history in 2020-21. Adding a third-place finish in voting in 2021-22, the Panthers captain has been a Selke Trophy finalist in three of the past four seasons.
As the first choice on 165 of the 194 ballots and a top-five pick of 192 voters, Barkov was a runaway winner with 1,817 voting points. Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal, a Selke finalist for the first time since 2009-10, finished second in voting with 539 points. Staal was followed closely by first-time Selke finalist Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who garnered 514 points for third place.
Barkov was a key contributor to the Atlantic Division champion Panthers finishing the season tied for first place in the NHL in goals-against per game (2.41, excluding two GA for shootout losses). It also marked the lowest such figure in franchise history, topping the 2.44 set in 2015-16. Barkov took a team-leading 1,100 face-offs and posted a win rate of 57.3%, ranking ninth in the NHL (min. 50 GP/500 face-offs). He placed fifth among NHL forwards in plus-minus with a +33 rating, the second-highest figure in his 11-year NHL career. The puck was in the offensive zone for 46.3% of the time Barkov was on the ice at even strength according to NHL EDGE tracking data, ranking in the 97th percentile among NHL skaters, and in the defensive zone for just 35.3% of the time (97th percentile).
The NHL is announcing its 2023-24 trophy winners during pregame programming ahead of Stanley Cup Playoff games on national rightsholders ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports; at the 2024 NHL Awards show at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas on June 27 and at the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft in Las Vegas on June 28. ESPN’s announcements are being made on its studio show The Point leading into its game coverage.
The NHL continues its series of trophy winner announcements on Wednesday, May 22, when the winner of the Jack Adams Award will be unveiled.
