The Chicago Blackhawks are busy celebrating their third Stanley Cup championship in the past six seasons, and the team got some more hardware on Monday night as Duncan Keith was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Keith, who became just the fourth player in NHL history to log over 700 minutes of ice time in a single postseason, scored the game-winning goal in Game 6 on Monday night. He ended up with 21 points during the postseason, which tied Chris Chelios’ team-record for points by a blue liner in a single playoff.
The vote for Keith to win the award was unanimous among PHWA members, according to the NHL.
The Blackhawks played with just four primary defensemen during their entire playoff run, and none played more ice time than Keith. He averaged over 31 minutes per game during the postseason, and he still averaged nearly a point per game despite the heavy workload.
Keith becomes the fourth member of the Blackhawks to have won the trophy, as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews won in the other Hawks’ title years and Brad Richards won in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
