Two Habs Players Walk Away With Major NHL Awards
On Friday, the NHL officially announced that Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki had won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward (although he really won for his dominant two-way play) for the 2025-26 season. Meanwhile, forward Cole Caufield was named this season’s winner of the Lady Byng Trophy as the NHL’s Most Gentlemanly Player. The Habs’ top line duo are the 3rd players in team history to win their respective awards.
Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have joined some big-name @CanadiensMTL in the record books! 👀 #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/8y5hRdoS6K
— NHL (@NHL) June 5, 2026
Suzuki is the first Habs player to win the Selke Trophy since Guy Carbonneau last won the award for the fourth time back in 1992. The other player who has won the Selke Trophy is Bob Gainey, who also won four times during his NHL career. It remains to be seen if Suzuki can also join two of the best defensive forwards the NHL has ever had as a multiple-time winner of the Selke Trophy down the line. However, this is an award that winners tend to get multiple times, much like Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron, and Aleksander Barkov. Sure, Barkov will be back after missing all of the 2025-26 season with an ACL/MCL tear, but Suzuki has put himself on the map as one of the best two-way players in the league and should challenge the 4-time winner for the Selke next season.
Safe to say Nick Suzuki’s elite defensive prowess helped earned him the Selke Trophy! 😤 #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/v7tDJMIbao
— NHL (@NHL) June 5, 2026
In fact, this year Suzuki really had no competition for the Selke Trophy, as the votes by the Professional Hockey Writers Association had him winning by a landslide. Suzuki won the award with 151 of the 198 first-place votes and a total of 1,726 points in terms of the top 5 system. Whereas 2nd-place finisher Anthony Cirelli had just 10 first-place votes and 467 total points. With that being said, we might be able to see a two-man race between Suzuki and Barkov next year.
Final voting totals for the 2025-26 Selke Trophy: pic.twitter.com/4mtkLvjPNF
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 5, 2026
The truth is guys like Cirelli could be better defensively than either one of Suzuki or Barkov, but oftentimes it goes to the player who best exemplifies great performances at both sides of the ice. There is no denying the fact that Suzuki had a career year with 29 goals, 72 assists, and 101 points to finish 6th in league scoring, which has certainly helped.
As for Caufield, he is the first Hab to win the Lady Byng since Mats Naslund won the trophy all the way back in 1988, joining him and Toe Blake (1946) as the only players to be voted as the NHL’s Most Gentlemanly Players. Despite having more penalty minutes (14) than both finalists Jake Sanderson (8) and Anze Kopitar (10), Caufield was able to get the votes to capture the Lady Byng. A lot of this may have to do with how extraordinary a season that Caufield had.
Full voting table for the Lady Byng Trophy, won by #Habs forward Cole Caufield. As voted by the PHWA. #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/95nq8N7sSz
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) June 5, 2026
The fact that Caufield didn’t pick up many penalty minutes while scoring 51 goals on the year, finishing 2nd in the Rocket Richard race to Nathan MacKinnon, is something that deserves notice, and winning the Lady Byng Trophy was the best way for the league to reward him for such a great season. Given the way that Caufield plays, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this is the first of multiple Lady Byng Trophies throughout his career. Unlike Suzuki, Caufield winning the Lady Byng Trophy wasn’t nearly as unanimous, as he finished with 45 first-place votes and 776 total points. Meanwhile, Kopitar was close behind with 38 first-place votes and 602 points.
It was great that both Suzuki and Caufield got rewarded for their phenomenal seasons, but the way the NHL presented their respective awards definitely made it better. What they had planned was a double prank, where they got Suzuki to present Caufield with the Lady Byng in front of the whole team, and then it was Caufield’s turn to present Suzuki with the Selke. Both players were surprised to receive their awards, but the reality is they both deserved something for how incredibly they played this season.
TWICE AS NICE 🏆🏆 #NHLAwards
Nick Suzuki surprised Cole Caufield with the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy before Caufield surprised Suzuki with the Frank J. Selke Trophy. 😂
The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is awarded for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct and the Frank J.Selke… pic.twitter.com/3NY5pp2sRh
— NHL (@NHL) June 5, 2026
During their shared Zoom interview with the media, they revealed that they knew since after Game 3 of the series against the Buffalo Sabres but had to keep it a secret that they won until Friday when it could be officially announced.
Were you surprised to see both players receive their respective awards, or did you believe they would both get them?
