It seems like a simple question: Who were the best defensive forwards in the EURO League? But it’s difficult to quantify the answer. You can tell just by watching Adam Henrique of Gothenburg play that he really knows his way around the defensive zone, but how do you attach numbers to what Henrique does so you can compare him to the league’s other forwards?
In a few days, Websim will present us with a ballot of 5 forwards for the Best Defensive Forward Trophy – or the Selke Trophy, as NHL fans have come to call it. The ballot usually brings to mind one word: “Really?” All five will be big time scorers who really don’t seem like defensive forwards. True defensive forwards never make the Websim ballots.
Here are the players who have won the trophy so far in the EURO:
- Season 1 – ERIK COLE (Saint-Petersburg)
- Season 2 – JONATHAN TOEWS (Bratislava)
- Season 3 – RYAN KESLER (Dublin)
- Season 4 – ADAM HENRIQUE (Gothenburg)
- Season 5 – KYLE TURRIS (Paris)
- Season 6 – NICKLAS BACKSTROM (Minsk)
- Season 7 – MATT DUCHENE (Belfast)
- Season 8 – THOMAS POWELL (Minsk)
So we set out on a quest to rate players based on purely defensive statistics. We threw out plus-minus because that would favor Belfast and Athens players and shave off everyone from Bern, Oslo and some other teams. With just blocked shots and takeaways in mind, we copied and pasted the top players in those two categories, divided them by the minutes played, and got this:
Best Top Line defensive forwards
But that chart leaves out a lot of good defensive forwards. All the players listed on the chart are top line centers and wings for one obvious reason: how else do you accumulate more takeaways and blocks than everyone else unless you are on the ice more than everyone else?
Should third-liners even be considered? That’s a good question. If they should, how about fourth-liners? Should hits be included in the stats? We need a good judge to settle this debate.
So, with everyone included, here are two charts showing the best defensive forwards – with and without hits included.
If the charts could be that judge we were talking about above, then these five would be on the ballot for the trophy.
