Not only is Florida the new state of hockey, it’s apparently the state of defensive hockey. Anthony Cirelli narrowly missed out on second place in Selke voting as he finished behind Aleksander Barkov (1,363 points) and Sam Reinhart (837 points). Cirelli garnered 828 points on the NHL’s 10-7-5-3-1 allocation system. His 29 first-place votes was tied for second with Reinhart, but they were a distant second as Barkov racked up 96 top votes. The voting for the best defensive forward is conducted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
The third-place finish was the highest of Cirelli’s career as the 27-year-old finished fourth in 2019-20 and fifth in 2021-22. While this award recognizes his defensive play, it was also Tony Two Goals biggest offensive season as he set career highs in goals (27), assists (32), and points (59).
Of all of the players on the Lightning that played more than 1,000 minutes at 5v5 last year, Cirelli’s 2.07 XGA/60 was the lowest on the team. It was also the third lowest number posted by any forward in the league with at least 1,000 minutes of 5v5 ice time (Reinhart and Quinton Byfield were the two players ahead of him). He also finished at 50.1% in the face-off dot. While that number in and of itself isn’t super sexy, he did win 647 face-offs, by far the most on the team (Luke Glendening was second with 502 wins). Cirelli also took the bulk of defensive zone face-offs for the team with 468, which isn’t surprising considering 56.3% of his shifts started in the Lightning’s end.
While the short-handed numbers above might not have been the best of his career, Cirelli helped offset that by being dangerous with his offensive output on the penalty kill. His seven points (4 goals, 3 assists) down a skater set a career-high, and was tied for second in the league last season.
It would have been an upset had he won the award, after all there is a reason this is the third time he’s won in the last five years. As much as it hurts to throw any credit to the team from South Florida, Barkov is the best defensive forward in the league. It was a well deserved win for him. Credit to the Panthers for bringing in patients from the Joe Dimaggio Children’s Hospital to surprise Barkov with the awards (he also won the King Clancy award).
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Cirelli wasn’t the only Bolt to receive votes. His linemate, Brandon Hagel, finished 9th with 115 points while Brayden Point finished tied for 26 after picking up a couple of four-place votes.
Congratulations to all of the finalists.
