TORONTO -- Thunder Bay's Jordan Staal is in some pretty elite company.
The Carolina Hurricanes captain on Sunday was named one of three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, the National Hockey League award for its best defensive forward. Also in the running are Toronto's Auston Matthews and Florida's Aleksander Barkov.
Staal, who put up 10 goals and 30 point for the Hurricanes, who will open Round 2 of the NHL playoffs on Sunday afternoon on the road against the New York Rangers, averaged 15:23 of ice time this year, including an average of 2:07 of shorthanded time, tops among Carolina forwards.
He had four shorthanded points, took the 14th most face-offs and had the seventh-best faceoff percentage (58.1 per cent) among players who took at least 500 face-offs.
The 35-year-old, who just completed his 18th season, had 41 blocked shots and 25 takeaways, helping the Hurricanes to a 52-23-7 record, good for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Staal finished third in the Selke voting in 2009-10, when he was with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Toronto's Matthews, better known for his goal scoring abilities, won 53.5 per cent of his face-offs, and his 93 blocked shots and 85 takeaways both ranked second among NHL forwards.
Barkov, a finalist for the Selke Trophy for the third time in four seasons, won the award in 2020-21 and finished second in 2021-22. He won 57.3 per cent of his face-offs and had 61 takeaways and 50 blocked shots. He also finished +33.
