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Nick Suzuki leads the race for Selke at the moment, according to The Athletic
Does the name Dom Luszczyszyn mean anything to you?

We’re talking about a columnist for The Athletic who specializes in stats. He concentrates his analyses on numbers, and even if he brings nuances into his papers, his job is to draw conclusions thanks to stats.

This sometimes results in aberrations, and those who know him probably learned this from one of his notable errors, when he placed Nick Suzuki, in the summer of 2022, in a ranking of the 10 worst NHL contracts.

Although he was the first to say that his model wasn’t perfect, let’s just say that he was often reminded that Nick Suzuki’s mistake didn’t really fly – especially in Quebec.

But back to the present.

This morning, he penned a piece about the races for the various end-of-season trophies. Based on his figures (and remembering that they’re not the final word on everything), he gives a mid-season forecast of who could win which trophy.

Among all the trophies, only one name stands out for the Habs: Nick Suzuki… and he, according to ( Luszczyszyn‘s model), is currently the favourite for the Selke.

The Athletic’s reporter mentions that Suzuki fulfills his conditions to qualify and that his defensive performance (on a team that doesn’t dominate) is excellent.

Luszczyszyn, in his model, ranks guys according to their defense. So it’s possible that, when it comes time to vote for the real thing, not only could the defensive performance change, but the offensive aspect could also hurt Suzuki. It all depends on how his season ends.

However, the journalist is not afraid to say that Suzuki plays like a striker who deserves a nomination.

After all the comparisons made with Patrice Bergeron in recent years, it’s nice to see that Suzuki, who is approaching point-per-game for the first time in his career, also excels defensively.

He’s worth his contract, in any case.

For what it’s worth, Bergeron won his first Selke (of six) in 2012. This was his ninth season in the pros and he was almost 27. Nick Suzuki is 24.


In gusto

– For Montreal CF fans.

– Of course.

– It’s still the talk of the town.

– We’re off.

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