Rename the Selke.....the Bergeron

You might not like how it sounds...but I don't care. As a Habs fan, I was so easy to dislike the Bruins. But impossible to not realize that Patrice Bergeron will always be seen as one of the best 2-way player to have ever played the game.

It,s time to move on from the trophy names that lost their meaning and give those trophies something more from this era. Yeah, I would also change every other trophy not named the Stanley Cup. But with what happened yesterday with the Bruins, I thought it was appropriate to talk about this trophy and the guy that most likely has played his final game.

If not, well wait till he retires....but acknowledge the greatness of that player.
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Let's be honest with ourselves, most people / newer generation don't know the names on most of the trophies.

This so much. The names are honestly outdated so badly at this point, the names don't represent the award properly.

Art Ross? Vezina? These guys retired before 99.5% of the population was born, Art Ross retired over 100 years ago...

Selke? Conn Smythe? They aren't even players. Like imagine we had no playoff mvp trophy so we made one and called it the Jeremy Jacobs... like wtf? It should be named after the best playoff performer, not a team owner.

When you really look through the awards you see the need for change, and it isn't like there is no precedent for change. Look at the Ted Lindsay Award, originally the Lester B Pearson, changed in 2010. Maybe not the best choice for a player to name it after, perhaps Howe would have been better, but at least he was playing in the NHL was Gretzky was born...

Changing the Selke to the Bergeron feels fight, but I think we need to wait 20 or 30 years to do it. other awards could be changed within the next 10 years though imo.
 
1) Why are people so attached to the names of these trophies?
2) Why does this have to 'open the box?'

We don't often see a player do what Bergeron did. I wouldn't have a problem with this. I also won't care if it doesn't happen.
Probably because some of us grew up dreaming we would win those trophies. As a kid playing hockey,I was dreaming about winning the Vezina for example. Martin Brodeur is and always will be my hero and someone I tried to mimic my game after, but I wanted to win the Vezina, not a Brodeur trophy.
 
Part of the intrigue of the NHL is the history. If you rename trophies you're essentially destroying history which I guess kind of goes with the times right now doesn't it? Anyhow, I think it's f***ing stupid.
 
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This so much. The names are honestly outdated so badly at this point, the names don't represent the award properly.

Art Ross? Vezina? These guys retired before 99.5% of the population was born, Art Ross retired over 100 years ago...

Selke? Conn Smythe? They aren't even players. Like imagine we had no playoff mvp trophy so we made one and called it the Jeremy Jacobs... like wtf? It should be named after the best playoff performer, not a team owner.

When you really look through the awards you see the need for change, and it isn't like there is no precedent for change. Look at the Ted Lindsay Award, originally the Lester B Pearson, changed in 2010. Maybe not the best choice for a player to name it after, perhaps Howe would have been better, but at least he was playing in the NHL was Gretzky was born...

Changing the Selke to the Bergeron feels fight, but I think we need to wait 20 or 30 years to do it. other awards could be changed within the next 10 years though imo.

Art Ross feels like it should be the Gretzky trophy, no brainer.
 
Lol yeah clearly what I meant.

Nhl: hey guys thanks for the trophy, just a quick fyi, were renaming the rocket after ovechkin, because a couple fans who started watching hockey 3 weeks ago think all the major awards need to be renamed, because books on hockey history don’t exist anymore. And there confused who all these people are.

Well no, the problem is that Maurice Richard is a relatively insignificant hockey figure next to Alex Ovechkin.

I give Richard props - he led the NHL in goals 5 times in an extremely weak era on a stacked team back when 98% of players came from one small country. He was even league MVP once. It's a great accomplishment! He also set the NHL goal scoring record, and it stood up for a whopping 3 years after his retirement.

Of course, it's not remotely in the same ballpark as leading an international NHL in goals 9 times and being the MVP 3 times. Ovie also has nearly 50% more goals than anyone else in his era.
 
This so much. The names are honestly outdated so badly at this point, the names don't represent the award properly.

Art Ross? Vezina? These guys retired before 99.5% of the population was born, Art Ross retired over 100 years ago...

Selke? Conn Smythe? They aren't even players. Like imagine we had no playoff mvp trophy so we made one and called it the Jeremy Jacobs... like wtf? It should be named after the best playoff performer, not a team owner.

When you really look through the awards you see the need for change, and it isn't like there is no precedent for change. Look at the Ted Lindsay Award, originally the Lester B Pearson, changed in 2010. Maybe not the best choice for a player to name it after, perhaps Howe would have been better, but at least he was playing in the NHL was Gretzky was born...

Changing the Selke to the Bergeron feels fight, but I think we need to wait 20 or 30 years to do it. other awards could be changed within the next 10 years though imo.
If the Selke is changed to the Bergeron in 20-30 years won't it be an "outdated" name at that time? In 20-30 years there will be a lot of people who never saw Bergeron, or have little memory of him. There would be far fewer 20-30 years after that, so should awards should regularly be renamed?
 
If the Selke is changed to the Bergeron in 20-30 years won't it be an "outdated" name at that time? In 20-30 years there will be a lot of people who never saw Bergeron, or have little memory of him. There would be far fewer 20-30 years after that, so should awards should regularly be renamed?

I don't think so, just like the stars of the 80s are still well known today. Plus Bergeron has the pedigree, the problem with a lot of the awards is the names don't fit the award at all. What did Selke do to have the best defensive forward award named after him? Conn Smythe? Art Ross? The reality is the names don't fit and the modern comparison for the names would be a joke.

If we are honest the names of the trophies are so old it wouldn't surprise me to find out someone didn't know it was the name of a person. Names like Art Ross, Vezina, Conn Smythe, are not common names anymore, they are not even uncommon names, at this point. They are effectively unheard of.
 
Who says he is the best of all time? You?



I think we should rename them every week, that way we are up to date with the latest best guy!

If Wayne Gretzky has no major awards named after him, why on earth should Patrice Bergeron have one named after him.

how about we let the winners rename them every year

and they don't have to name it after themselves either they can name it whatever they want

someone wants to dedicate the Vezina to their dead dad by naming it after him for a year? go ahead
rename the Rocket after a hot dog company for a sponsorship? sure you do that
is the Conn Smythe the "*insert whatever team lost in the finals here* sucks" trophy now? you better f***ing believe it is
 
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I don't think so, just like the stars of the 80s are still well known today. Plus Bergeron has the pedigree, the problem with a lot of the awards is the names don't fit the award at all. What did Selke do to have the best defensive forward award named after him? Conn Smythe? Art Ross? The reality is the names don't fit and the modern comparison for the names would be a joke.

If we are honest the names of the trophies are so old it wouldn't surprise me to find out someone didn't know it was the name of a person. Names like Art Ross, Vezina, Conn Smythe, are not common names anymore, they are not even uncommon names, at this point. They are effectively unheard of.
How many of the top 50 scorers from the 1980s do you think are well known by people who weren't born or are too young to remember the 1980s?


Patrice Bergeron is great and he will be a first-ballot inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he's not a legendary player (few are). I doubt he'll be well known in four decades by people who aren't old enough to have seen him play.
 
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You might not like how it sounds...but I don't care. As a Habs fan, I was so easy to dislike the Bruins. But impossible to not realize that Patrice Bergeron will always be seen as one of the best 2-way player to have ever played the game.

It,s time to move on from the trophy names that lost their meaning and give those trophies something more from this era. Yeah, I would also change every other trophy not named the Stanley Cup. But with what happened yesterday with the Bruins, I thought it was appropriate to talk about this trophy and the guy that most likely has played his final game.

If not, well wait till he retires....but acknowledge the greatness of that player.
I am actually surprised it is not called "the Bob Gainey Award". The greatest defensive player in the era when this art wasn't coached or trained. Bergeron is good and all, but he is no Pavel Datsyuk who could stick-handle in a phone booth.
 
Well no, the problem is that Maurice Richard is a relatively insignificant hockey figure next to Alex Ovechkin.

I give Richard props - he led the NHL in goals 5 times in an extremely weak era on a stacked team back when 98% of players came from one small country. He was even league MVP once. It's a great accomplishment! He also set the NHL goal scoring record, and it stood up for a whopping 3 years after his retirement.

Of course, it's not remotely in the same ballpark as leading an international NHL in goals 9 times and being the MVP 3 times. Ovie also has nearly 50% more goals than anyone else in his era.
Maurice Richard played at a time when there were six teams, so there wasn't a need to have enough players/ as big a talent pool as during Alex Ovechkin's career. Having so few teams in Richard's day also meant every game was a tough rivalry game, unlike today.

I honestly have no interest in debating Richard versus Ovechkin, so it's fine by me if you want to consider Ovechkin better, however you do lose a lot of credibility when you refer to Maurice Richard as a "relatively insignificant hockey figure".
 
No and they should never change the names of the trophies. That is one of the best parts of the NHL is the history built into the awards with the names. It is great that Bergeron is a very good player, but recently bias is about the worst reason to change the name of an award.
 
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Maurice Richard played at a time when there were six teams, so there wasn't a need to have enough players/ as big a talent pool as during Alex Ovechkin's career. Having so few teams in Richard's day also meant every game was a tough rivalry game, unlike today.

I honestly have no interest in debating Richard versus Ovechkin, so it's fine by me if you want to consider Ovechkin better, however you do lose a lot of credibility when you refer to Maurice Richard as a "relatively insignificant hockey figure".

yeah fair enough. Admittedly, that was a rather inflammatory way of saying it.
 
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How many of the top 50 scorers from the 1980s do you think are well known by people who weren't born or are too young to remember the 1980s?


Patrice Bergeron is great and he will be a first-ballot inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he's not a legendary player (few are). I doubt he'll be well known in four decades by people who aren't old enough to have seen him play.

Still has the pedigree, which is my biggest complaint. Some of these trophies aren't named after great(or even good) players, and they should be imo.

Bergeron is the example of a great defensive forward, how long that example is kept going we'll see but it is not unreasonable to say it might keep him in the mind of people.
 
I'm not saying it should necessarily be renamed the Bergeron trophy, but I would like to see a better counterargument than "It's been named after this GM and coach for a really long time, and changing that would be bad".
 
No and they should never change the names of the trophies. That is one of the best parts of the NHL is the history built into the awards with the names. It is great that Bergeron is a very good player, but recently bias is about the worst reason to change the name of an award.
Honor system: without looking it up, who was Frank J. Selke and why is his contribution to the defensive side of the game so respected that his name should forever be associated with the award for best defensive forward?
 

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