The Norris Trophy is awarded annually to the NHL’s top defenceman, as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
This season, Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks, Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche are the finalists.
The award will be presented to one of these defensemen during the NHL Awards Ceremony at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN).
While we wait to find out the winner, NHL.com writers Adam Kimmelman, Mike Zeisberger and Mike G. Morreale debate the merits of each finalist in this awards edition of State Your Case.
With all due respect to Cale Makar and Roman Josi, the Vancouver Canucks’ defencemen were the best in the NHL this season, for a team that not many predicted would finish second in the Western Conference. In his first season as Canucks captain, Hughes played a big role by leading all players at his position with 92 points, 75 assists and 17 primary power-play assists while averaging a team-high 24:41 in 82 games to help Vancouver (50-23-9) to its first 50-win season since 2011-12. He is the sixth defenceman in NHL history to score at least 92 points in a season at age 24 or younger, and play nine games with at least three assists, Here’s another stat that boggles the mind: Hughes is already second on the all-time scoring list among Canucks defencemen with 333 points in 365 games. Alexander Edler is first with 409 points in 925 games. Hughes also set the Canucks record for plus-minus (plus-38) in a single season. The fact is that Hughes is one of the best skaters in the league, and that includes all positions, and his hockey IQ is getting better with age. Plus, Vancouver controlled 56.4 per cent of all shots made at 5-on-5 when Hughes was on the ice this season, which ranked higher than Makar (52.8) and Josi (53.4). — Mike G. Morreale, Senior Draft Writer
