With the 2025-26 NHL season winding down, we're quickly approaching the time when players are rewarded for all their hard work. No, not the playoffs or a run to the Stanley Cup final and potential championship--end-of-season awards! While it's clear to anyone who's watched the Philadelphia Flyers this year that none of the players will be taking home a Rocket Richard or Art Ross (goal scoring continues to be a struggle for the team as a whole), there is one trophy a Flyer could be in the mix for: the Selke Trophy.
The Selke is awarded to the best defensive forward and should also be the major award that Flyers fans are most familiar with — Sean Couturier won it after the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season. He's a shell of his former self, unfortunately, so he's not the one getting some attention from the statisticians, but Noah Cates has put himself in the conversation.
Cates is a strong defensive forward, often deployed against opposing top lines. He's even been exceptional at slowing down Connor McDavid, which is a rare feat. In that article from The Athletic, Cates is ranked as the fourth-best Selke candidate, behind Nick Suzuki, Yanni Gourde, and Michael Amadio. He's ahead of much bigger names like Shane Pinto and Sam Reinhart.
Name recognition, however, is a big part of Selke voting, and it's something that Cates doesn't have compared to the competition, especially with Suzuki playing as well as he is. Cates is no stranger to Selke votes, though, having finished 15th in voting in the 2022-23 season. That had him one spot behind Auston Matthews, and immediately following Cates were Mika Zibanejad, Matthew Tkachuk, and Mark Stone. That's some impressive company.
Despite a lull in January where he scored no goals and a measly four points in 15 games, Cates has had a strong season. He's one goal away from tying his career high of 16, and has already tied his career high in points with 38. It's still quite a long shot that Cates will even be a finalist when all the votes are tallied, but it's still good to see him garnering some recognition for his strong defensive play, even if it's only through statistical models.