During his speech, Ryan O’Reilly nailed it: “this week has been a lot.” After winning the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy, the St. Louis Blues’ two-way forward won the 2019 Selke Trophy on Wednesday.
O’Reilly finished ahead of two strong finalists in Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins) and Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights).
The Selke Trophy is simply described as “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” and ROR certainly fits that bill. O’Reilly was also a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy, so he was getting recognition even before the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs began.
Here are the voting results. As you can see, Sidney Crosby came close to finishing in the top three:
Anze Kopitar took home last year’s trophy, while Bergeron won his fourth Selke in 2017-18.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.