Eight years ago, 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

Entering his seventh full NHL season, he has carved out a nice role for himself with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team which finds itself well poised to make a run for the Stanley cup each spring.

From a production standpoint, there have been five forwards from this draft class to separate themselves from the rest significantly -- Penguins general manager Ray Shero traded their young, promising third-line center, 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Since the start of that 2012 season, Sutter ranks 23rd in the NHL in goals against per 60 minutes of even-strength play with 1.92. In comparison, Jordan Staal comes in at 76th in the NHL over that same period with 2.24 goals against per 60 minutes of even strength-play. Perhaps you don’t recall, but Staal was one of the three finalists for the Selke Award -- given to the forward who displays the most skill on the defensive side -- in 2010, with the trophy ultimately going to three-time winner Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

When we look at some of the top Selke candidates over the last few years, it becomes apparent how comparable Sutter is to these guys from a defensive perspective as well. The table below accounts for the last four season (2011-2014) of production.

Over those last four seasons, Sutter comes in at number three behind Patrice Bergeron and Anze Kopitar with 1.8 goals against per 60 minutes of even-strength play. Sutter also takes a higher percentage of his overall faceoffs in his own defensive zone than the other six with just over 36 percent.

Last season, in 81 games, Sutter put up a very respectable 1.75 goals against per 60 of even-strength ice time, easily placing him in the top-50 in the category. Sutter got off to a strong start, pacing ahead of Selke frontrunners Anze Kopitar and Logan Couture.

As show in the table below, this season, Sutter is having a solid year relative to the Selke “beasts.”

Clearly, Sutter is deserving of being placed in the conversation of the Selke Award based on his numbers relative to past winners and front-runners from this year.

Playing His Role

To pull everything into context, due to the nature of his role and skillset, Sutter is often asked by his coaches to match up against the opposing team’s top line for stretches of each game, take key defensive-zone faceoffs, and even log substantial time on the penalty kill. Naturally, this situation comes with facing a large number of shots from opposing All-Star caliber centers and wings. And if you factor into the mix Sutter’s outstanding final year with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2011, his numbers are even better, with his goals against per 60 sitting at 1.83 in even-strength ice time over the 4.5 year period. That’s money.

Brandon Sutter may never be an dominant hockey player from an offensive and fantasy perspective, and that is fine -- he plays on a team with maybe two of the best centers ever to play the game. He doesn’t play with top-six guys such as Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and James Neal. At least not while Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are in the mix.

However, we shouldn’t let this cover up the defensive prowess he contributes to the Pittsburgh Penguins as one of the most versatile third-line centers in the National Hockey League. The guy is a hard worker, and if Sutter plays the way he is capable of playing, he could not only find himself as a top-6 center and leader of a NHL franchise but also a contender for the Frank J. Selke Trophy for years to come.