Furthermore, Wayne Gretzky has the highest +/- of any forward in NHL history. Does this suggest, overall, he is the greatest defensive forward of all-time?
Of course it doesn't because Gretzky was primarily an offensive forward. But this point brings up by personal bugbear (I haven't beaten it to death enough yet, sorry), which is: What the hell is "defensive forward"?
Gretzky in 1984-85, I think we all agree, was the best offensive player in the NHL. Gretzky also played on an offensively-tilted club that could play shut-down defense to a small degree, but was primarily concerned with outscoring its opponents. Should such a team be discounted from having the best "defensive forward"? Gretzky, that season, was on the ice for 253 Oilers' goals and 129 against, an overall "plus" 124. Thus, the Oilers scored more than 1.5 goals to the good when Wayne was on the ice.
Removing PP goals-against (because he killed penalties), Gretzky moves to "plus" 161. Thus, discounting when he killed penalties, throwing Gretzky on the ice in 1984-85 resulted in the Oilers scored 2.0 more goals per game than their opponent.
Just looking at even-strength (i.e. discounting his PP contribution), Gretzky was an official +100, or 1.25 goals to the good when he was on.
So, who won the Selke that season? Craig Ramsay of the Buffalo Sabres, in his final NHL season. The Scotty Bowman Sabres that season were a good-but-not-great club, but had the NHL's #1 defense. Now, I didn't watch Ramsay that season (and this was basically before I started watching NHL), so I have no idea what he was doing. Presumably, he was on the "third" line and was the designated shut-down winger. Ramsay scored 33 points. He was on the ice for 51 Sabres' goals for, and 52 goals against, so he was an overall "minus" 1.
Removing PP goals-against (Ramsay was only on for 22 against, 15 fewer than Gretzky, which suggest to me he wasn't even on the top PK unit), Ramsay moves to "plus" 21.
Just looking at even-strength, Ramsay was an official +17, sixth-best on his club.
So, to compare the numbers:
Gretzky
+123 / +161 / +100
Ramsay
-1 / +21 / +17
Now, I'm obviously not seriously suggesting Gretzky was a Selke winner in 1984-85, but I'm willing to bet Gretzky was on the ice against the opposition's top forwards as much or more than Ramsay (a third liner) was. And his positive goals-differential in
ALL areas were vastly superior to Ramsay's... like, vastly. And the difference in strength between the two clubs (90 points to 109 points) is not nearly enough to suggest this difference.
So, my point is: If Gretzky was tilting the ice to a positive degree five to one-hundred times more than Ramsay was, why is Ramsay the best "defensive forward"? Obviously, these things are interpreted differently in different eras, but it seems voters in 1985 (as in many other periods) were impressed by shut-down forwards, whose one-dimensional responsibility was to check the other teams' stars (or right wingers, anyway).
The whole nature of the award is just sketchy as hell.