The 25-year-old center is the first Florida Panthers player to win the award after he was voted a finalist for the first time. He was first among Florida forwards in takeaways (39) and time on ice per game (20:56), second in blocked shots (37) behind Noel Acciari (63), and averaged 1:26 of shorthanded ice time per game. Barkov was 15th in the NHL in face-off percentage (54.9 percent, minimum 650 attempts) and took the 10th most face-offs (1,026), winning the eighth most (563).
"It feels unbelievable," Barkov said. "This is one of the biggest honors I've had in my life, in my hockey career. It's a team sport and it would never have been possible without my teammates, without the coaches, trainers and general manager] and everyone in our organization. So a big thank you to them and obviously it feels great, even to be nominated for this trophy. I always considered myself a two-way player and this is like the biggest honor you can get as a two-way player, so I'm really thankful for this honor."
***[RELATED: [NHL Frank J. Selke Trophy winners]
Barkov scored 58 points (26 goals, 32 assists) in 50 games to help the Panthers (37-14-5) finish second in the Discover Central Division and qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He led Florida skaters in SAT percentage (minimum 15 games played) with the Panthers taking 58.6 percent of all shot attempts when he was on the ice at 5-on-5.
"Obviously you want to be good every game," Barkov said. "You want to do the right things every game starting from Game 1 until the end. I think I played the way I really wanted to starting from Game 1 almost all the way through the end. I had ups and downs but pretty much the whole season I was consistent, I was happy with it, how consistent I was. But obviously I know I need to get better. I can get better. I know what I need to work at and just get better for the next season. Big honor but I want to keep getting better."
Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, a four-time Selke winner, was second, and Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone was third as the other finalists for the award.
"I want to congratulate 'Bergy' and Stone for great seasons too, and good luck to Stone as well in the (Stanley Cup Playoffs)," Barkov said. "Those are two guys I really look up to. There are a lot of different players in the League I look up to as well, who I play against, but those two are really good players. So I like to play against them and see them play and take something for myself too."
2021 Selke Trophy voting
Points (1st-5th)*
1. Aleksander Barkov, FLA 780 (62-16-7-3-4)
2. Patrice Bergeron, BOS 522 (15-30-24-11-9)
3. Mark Stone, VGK 463 (11-26-23-16-8)
4. Joel Eriksson Ek, MIN 193 (4-6-12-10-21)
5. Ryan O'Reilly, STL 175 (2-8-12-10-9)
6. Phillip Danault, MTL 138 (1-5-4-20-13)
7. Joe Pavelski, DAL 59 (0-4-3-4-4)
8. Jordan Staal, CAR 43 (1-0-4-3-4)
9. Brad Marchand, BOS 39 (2-0-1-3-5)
10. Mitchell Marner, TOR 33 (0-0-3-4-6)
11. Marcus Foligno, MIN 25 (1-0-3-0-0)
12. Anze Kopitar, LAK 22 (0-1-1-3-1)
13. Leon Draisaitl, EDM 17 (0-2-0-1-0)
14. Sidney Crosby, PIT 15 (0-0-0-4-3)
15. Sean Couturier, PHI 12 (0-0-1-2-1)
16. Jean-Gabriel Pageau, NYI 10 (1-0-0-0-0)
17. Connor Brown, OTT 10 (0-1-0-0-3)
18. Mikko Rantanen, COL 8 (0-0-1-1-0)
19. Valeri Nichushkin, COL 7 (0-1-0-0-0)
20. Anthony Cirelli, TBL 7 (0-0-0-2-1)
21. Radek Faksa, DAL 5 (0-0-1-0-0)
22. Nathan MacKinnon, COL 4 (0-0-0-1-1)
23. Logan Couture, SJS 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
23. Zach Hyman, TOR 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
25. Sebastian Aho, CAR 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
25. Luke Glendening, DET 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
27. Auston Matthews, TOR 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
27. Connor McDavid, EDM 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
27. Nicholas Paul, OTT 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Points allocation: 10-7-5-3-1 (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
