After earning at least one vote for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 7 of his first 11 seasons in the NHL, Jared Spurgeon is a finalist for the award for the first time along with Auston Matthews and Jaccob Slavin.
Considering the fact that Brian Campbell (2012) is the only defender to win the award since 1954 I’d say it’s probably rare that two of the three finalists are defensemen. The closest Spurgeon had come to winning the award before this season was when he finished fifth in voting for his play in 2017-18, when he took only four minor penalties in 61 games while playing 24.