Los Angeles Kings captain/center Anze Kopitar has been nominated for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, the National Hockey League announced on April 18.
The Selke Trophy is an annual award given to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.
Kopitar won the Selke Trophy in 2016. He is the only King to win the award.
The 2018 NHL Awards will be held on June 20, at The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s state-of-the-art concert and entertainment venue.
NBCSN and Sportsnet will broadcast the event live in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, at 5 p.m. (PT).
Below is a look at Kopitar’s 2017-18 season highlights including notes and statistics:
- Set career-highs in goals (35), assists (57) and points (92).
- Led the team in points for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons.
- Led all NHL forwards in TOI/GM (22:05).
- Became the first Kings player to surpass the 90-point plateau since Wayne Gretzky (1993-94).
- Recorded 24 multi point game efforts, a career-high.
- Registered a career-high four goals (which tied a franchise record for most goals in a game) on March 22 at Colorado.
- Was the first Kings player to finish the season in the top-10 in NHL scoring (finished tied for 7th) since Ziggy Palffy (2002-03).
- Registered a career-high 10 game point streak (12 total points) from Oct. 26-Nov. 16.
- Surpassed Marcel Dionne (921 points) for fourth on the Kings all-time games played list; Butch Goring (275 goals) for fifth on the Kings all-time goals list; and Bernie Nicholls (758 points) for fifth on the Kings all-time points list.
- Registered his 800th career point (the fourth Kings player to reach 800 points with the franchise) in his 900th game on Feb. 20 at Winnipeg. Also this season he registered his 500th career assist.
- Won the Bill Libby Memorial Award (for the sixth time) as the club’s Most Valuable Player and he won the club’s Defensive Player of the Year Award (fifth time, tying Mattias Norstrom for most wins all-time) as voted by the local media.
- In the playoffs, he scored his 21st career playoff goal (in Game 3) to surpass Dionne for sixth on the Kings all-time playoff goals list. He also registered his 45th career postseason assist, third most all-time among Kings players.
As a team, Kopitar and the Kings led the league in penalty kill percentage at 85.0% (third when playing at home at 86.3% and third on the road at 83.8%).
They were first in the league in GAA (2.46) and first in total goals against overall (202; their second time in the last five seasons to finish on top, also 2013-14; 168 GA).
Goalie Jonathan Quick won his second William Jennings Trophy this season.
Centers Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins and Sean Couturier of the Philadelphia Flyers are the other Selke finalists.
