Dowd Finishes 30th In Selke Voting; What Makes The Capitals Center Such A Strong Player

The Washington Capitals saw one of their centers earn Selke consideration, as Nic Dowd earned a fourth-place vote for the award, putting him in a tie for 30th.

Aleksander Barkov won the trophy, which is awarded annually to "the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Dowd finished the year with 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points in 64 games, along with a 48.1 face-off percentage, 72 blocks and 118 hits. At 5-on-5, Dowd led all Washington centers in defensive zone starts (314) and defensive zone face-offs (512), though a good amount of his shifts would end in the offensive zone.

He was also tasked with shutting down other teams' top lines almost every other night while helping lead one of the NHL's strongest fourth lines with Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

Related: Kuznetsov Reflects On Trade From Capitals & 'Grateful' For Second Chance With Hurricanes, Says Game 6 Loss Stings More Than Usual

The 33-year-old's impressive all-around play led to him ending up on multiple trade boards going into the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, but Washington ended up holding onto him, given his impact and leadership on and off the ice.

But beyond the numbers, what makes Dowd such a strong defensive forward?

"He's incredibly important. He's just such a reliable player... as a goalie, you just got 100 percent trust, and you know he's gonna make the right play pretty much every single time," Charlie Lindgren said of Dowd, who was also his teammate back in college at St. Cloud State. "That's the one thing that's always stuck out with him; you just watch him make these little plays, and it's just like, every time it seems to be the right play to make."

It's also his hockey IQ and the way he thinks the game that makes him such a standout player.

View the original article to see embedded media.

"He's a great player. He does all the little things right, he plays really hard, he makes the other team's top lines work for every inch that you get," Trevor van Riemsdyk said. "He's a guy that's been super valuable to us and we know what he brings to our team."

Consistency is the other key to his game, and he's looking forward to continuing to elevate his performance as he enters his final year in D.C.

"I strive to go and do the exact same thing every single night and get better," Dowd said. "The foundation of my game, it's pretty simple... every single night, I think that you know, some nights, you're going to have really, really good games and you're not going to show up on the scoresheet and some nights, you're going to have really, really good games and you're going to show up on the scoresheet," Dowd said.