EYEING THE SELKE
At tender age of 24, Bolts’ Anthony Cirelli makes strong case for top defensive forward award
The Connor McDavid of defensive forwards.
That was the comparison Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper used in describing Anthony Cirelli. It was a nod to Cirelli’s impressive two-way game as much as it was his age.
As a second-year forward, McDavid was just 20 years old when he took over the league and won his first Hart Trophy. This year, Cirelli is trying to do something perhaps even more impressive: Convince voters he’s mature enough to win the Frank J. Selke Trophy in just his second season in the league.
“Obviously, the guys who have won in the past are some unbelievable players,” said the 22-year-old centre. “Some really big names that have for sure been in this league for a while. Great twoway players.
“I just kind of play my game and focus on my team. If it ends up happening, it happens.
“If not, just keep on going and just continue to get better at my game.”
In a lot of ways, winning the award is out of Cirelli’s control.
The Selke, which is often based more on intangibles and a player’s reputation in the league than actual defensive statistics, is sort of a lifetime achievement award for two-way forwards. It’s not good enough to have a season where you are defensively responsible. You have to do it for consecutive years. In some cases, you have to do it for an entire decade.
Patrice Bergeron, who has his name on the Selke a record four times, didn’t win his first trophy until he was in his seventh season in the league. Jonathan Toews was in his sixth year when he won. And it took Anze Kopitar and Ryan O’Reilly 10 long years before they were finally recognized.
So the fact Cirelli finished 11th in voting as a 21-yearold last season — he was the only rookie to receive a firstplace vote — was a sign the criteria could be changing.
“It has become a little bit of a young stars’ league,” said Cooper. “I think it’s no different whether you’re Connor McDavid and you’re filling the net or you’re Anthony Cirelli and you’re checking.”
Cirelli had 19 goals and 39 points, along with a plus-25 rating last season. In 67 games this year, he has 16 goals and 44 points, as well as a plus-28 rating.
He also is averaging the fifth-most minutes amongst forwards in short-handed situations. And he ranks 20th in the league with 52 takeaways, with just 24 giveaways this season (of the players ranked in the top-35 in takeaways, only O’Reilly and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare have fewer giveaways).
It was a stolen puck in a game against the New York Islanders last month — what teammate Victor Hedman jokingly described a “panic play” and others were calling the Theft of the Year — that put Cirelli in the conversation for the Selke.
The New York Islanders’ Mathew Barzal, who was fresh off beating McDavid in the fastest skater competition at the all-star game’s skills competition, had just taken a pass while skating through the neutral zone with no one but the goalie in front of him. It looked like he was going to cruise to an easy breakaway. But that was before Cirelli, who was a stride or two behind, put his head down and gave chase, eventually stripping Barzal of the puck.
The most impressive part was that there was no penalty called on the play.
“His skating ability allows him to recover on plays,” said Lightning defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk.
“But his strength on his stick — he bears down on pucks — in 50-50 battles is really something that, for a player at his age to be doing that, is really unbelievable stuff. You know when he goes into a corner, nine times out of 10 he’s going to come out of there with the puck.”
Cirelli’s maturity without the puck has elevated him to the top line alongside Nikita Kucherov or allowed the Lightning to load up a forward line with Kucherov, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos.
For Cirelli, playing a 200foot game is a necessity. After all, Tampa has plenty of players who can fill the net. But the third-round pick, who had seven points in seven games for Canada at the 2017 world juniors, realized early on in his career that if he wanted to earn a spot on the team, he would have to do so by keeping the puck out of his own net.
“I knew that if wanted to be effective, I had to do that (focus on defence), because I’m not just out there trying to score goals,” said Cirelli, a native of Etobicoke, Ont. “I think it’s helped my game a lot and helped me get where I am today.”
It’s also helping him get recognized.
Chances are Cirelli won’t sway voters from casting a ballot for Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier, Bergeron or O’Reilly, who were the top three finalists in the PHWA’s mid-season awards. But if he keeps this up for another year or two, who knows what could happen?
“Being in Toronto right now and the fact that you’re asking me that is a good sign, because that means people are noticing,” said Cooper. “I’ve had a front-row seat for it for a long time and I agree with you, it is a little bit of a pay your dues kind of award. But I would anticipate that he will be in that conversation sooner rather than later.”