Frank J. Selke Trophy

The Frank J. Selke Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game. The winner is selected by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association following the regular season. It has been awarded 35 times to 23 different players since the 1977–78 NHL season. The current holder is Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins.

History

The trophy was first awarded at the end of the 1977–78 NHL season. It was named after Frank J. Selke, former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. The Selke Trophy was the fifth and last of the major NHL awards to be introduced that have been named after General Managers and owners of the Original Six teams, the other awards being the Art Ross Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, and Jack Adams Award.

The first recipient was Bob Gainey of the Canadiens, who won the trophy the first four years it was given, and to date he has won it more times than any other player.Guy Carbonneau, Jere Lehtinen, Pavel Datsyuk and Patrice Bergeron are tied for the second-most wins, with three apiece.

List of National Hockey League awards

The National Hockey League presents numerous annual awards and trophies to recognize its teams and players. The oldest, and most recognizable, is the Stanley Cup. First awarded in 1893, the Stanley Cup is awarded to the NHL's playoff champion. The Stanley Cup is the third trophy to be used as the league's championship, as for the first nine years of the NHL's existence, it remained a multi-league challenge cup.

History

Team trophies

The NHL's first championship trophy was the O'Brien Trophy, which was created by the National Hockey Association in 1910 and transferred to the NHL in 1918, after which it was awarded to the playoff champion until 1927. Following the demise of the Western Hockey League after the 1926 season, the Stanley Cup became exclusive to the NHL, and the O'Brien Trophy became the trophy awarded to the NHL Canadian Division champion. After the 1938 season, the league reverted to one division, and the O'Brien Trophy was awarded to the Stanley Cup runners-up, until it was retired in 1950.

Frank J. Selke

Francis Joseph Aloysius "Frank" Selke (/ˈsɛlki/; May 7, 1893 – July 3, 1985) was a Canadian hockey manager in the National Hockey League. He was a nine-time Stanley Cup champion with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens and a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee.

Executive career

Early career

Born in Berlin, Ontario, Selke was managing the Iroquois Bantams in his hometown at the age of 14. He coached the Berlin Union Jacks junior team in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1912 to 1915, reaching the finals of the league championship in his final season. In 1919, he coached the University of Toronto Schools hockey team to the first Memorial Cup title.

He coached the St. Mary's junior OHA team to its third-straight SPA junior championship in the 1924–25 season, with a team that included future Toronto Maple Leafs star Joe Primeau. In 1926–27, the team became the Toronto Marlboros, and again won the junior SPA championship. Eventual Hall of Famer Red Horner was a star defenceman on the Toronto team. During his time with the organization, Selke also coached the Marlboros senior team.

Patrice Bergeron

Patrice Bergeron-Cleary (born July 24, 1985) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain playing for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL).

He played junior hockey with the Acadie–Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for one full season before being selected 45th overall by the Bruins in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He made the immediate jump from junior to the NHL after his draft and joined the Bruins in 2003–04. Internationally, Bergeron competes for Team Canada and has won gold medals at the 2004 World Championships, 2005 World Junior Championships, 2010 Winter Olympics, and 2014 Winter Olympics. Bergeron is a member of the Triple Gold Club after winning the Stanley Cup with Boston on June 15, 2011. Bergeron scored two goals including the Stanley Cup winning goal at 14:37 of the first period of Game 7 at Vancouver. From his superb two-way playing abilities, he has earned three recent wins of the Selke Trophy awarded annually to the NHL forward with the best defensive skills. Bergeron is considered to be one of the premier two-way forwards in the game today.

Trophy

A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, in North America, rings) are often given out either as the trophy or along with more traditional trophies.

Originally the word trophy, derived from the Greek tropaion, referred to arms, standards, other property, or human captives and body parts (e.g., headhunting) captured in battle. These war trophies commemorated the military victories of a state, army or individual combatant. In modern warfare trophy taking is discouraged, but this sense of the word is reflected in hunting trophies and human trophy collecting by serial killers.

A slang term for an individual or team's collection of trophies is silverware.

Etymology

Trophies have marked victories since ancient times. The word trophy coined in English in 1550, was derived from the French trophée in 1513, "a prize of war", from Old French trophee, from Latin trophaeum, monument to victory, variant of tropaeum, which in turn is the latinisation of the Greek τρόπαιον (tropaion), the neuter of τροπαῖος (tropaios), "of defeat" or "for defeat", but generally "of a turning" or "of a change", from τροπή (tropē), "a turn, a change" and that from the verb τρέπω (trepo), "to turn, to alter".