Leafs winger the early favourite to win significant NHL award next season

In that time we've seen Jonathan Toews capture 1, Anze Kopitar nab 2, and Ryan' O'Reilly, Sean Couturier, and Aleksander Barkov each get 1 in successive seasons before Bergeron's reign as the top defensive forward in the league for such a lengthy stretch. He fended off some great defensive forwards over the past 12 seasons and now it opens a free-for-all race for the Selke heading into 2023-24.

Jacob Staller of The Hockey News lists 5 elite two-way forwards who can now try to get their hands on the Selke with Bergeron out of the picture, including Mitch Marner. He also made mention of Mark Stone, Sebastian Aho, Nico Hischier, and Aleksander Barkov.

It's going to be tough for Marner to try to capture the elusive trophy because no winger has won the award since Jere Lehtinen in 2002-03. Lehtinen won the award 3 times, Dirk Graham and Craig Ramsay each won it once, and Bob Gainey won it 4 times as the only wingers in NHL history.

Nevertheless, Marner is an excellent two-way player and should have a real shot at winning this season if he can back up his 2022-23 season.

Stoller noted that Marner's offensive abilities are sky-high as he is tied for third (with Artemi Panarin) in assisted generated since his rookie season in 2016-17 - behind only the dynamic duo in Edmonton. He also generated the 2nd most 5-on-5 scoring chance assists per 60 minutes this past season (6.98).

Defensively, Marner ranked fourth among forwards in the most 5-on-5 puck retrievals (8.56) and 5th most 5-on-5 zone entries per 60 minutes (26.58). He has also turned into an elite penalty killer and leads the league in penalty-kill takeaways since 2020-21 with 43. Considering the fact that he's an offensive dynamo, he is also tied for 2nd with 11 shorthanded points in that same time span.

Marner will have some stiff competition from around the league with previous winners in Kopitar, Couturier, Barkov, and O'Reilly in the picture but also added into the fray are Hischier, Aho, and Stone. Sometimes points do make all the difference in differentiating a close two-horse race and with Marner coming 1 point shy of 100, that could push him over the edge in 2023-24.