CaliSports News – NHL Awards Predictions

NORRIS TROPHY (BEST DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEAR)

Norris Trophy

Nominees

Drew Doughty – Los Angeles Kings

Erik Karlsson – Ottawa Senators

P.K. Subban – Montreal Canadiens

Predictions

Emily – P.K. Subban

This one was a tough call. My Kings fan heart wanted to go for Doughty but as amazing as he is, the award goes to the best all round ability and I think the extra minutes – while they’re probably what put him in the running for the award – played a toll on his other stats and hurt his all around game. His 7 goals are less than half of Subban’s 15 and a third of Karisson’s. His PIM isn’t as impressive either.

So Subban or Karlsson? They’re even on assists and while Subban took more PIM, his plus/minus is considerably higher than Karlssons. They’ve both won the award before, their teams both did well because of their contributions.  It’s close but I think ultimately Subban’s time on the ice was better spent, though marginally.

Lori – Drew Doughty

While the definition of the Norris Trophy award clearly calls for a defenseman with “all-around ability,” hockey scribes frequently talk about the heavy consideration given to a defenseman’s offensive production. If this continues to be the case, the Norris will likely still elude Doughty who had only 7 goals and 46 points for the 2014-2015 season.

But if the voters take the “all-around” verbiage to heart, there is likely no stronger candidate for the Norris trophy than Drew Doughty. Doughty played in all 82 games in the 2014-2015 season, played in all situations including the penalty kill and the power play, and logged the most total time on ice of anyone in the league and second in average ice time (28.59) behind Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild. More importantly, as LA Kings Insider, Jon Rosen aptly pointed out, when Doughty was on the ice, the Kings registered 410 more shot attempts than they allowed.

Mike – Erik Karlsson

Knowing the NHL they will give it to P.K., so I am going with Karlsson. He had the most points of all d-men with 66 (21G +45A). Only Oliver Ekman-Larsson of Arizona had more goals at 23. And only Keith Yandle of the Rangers had more assists at 46. He is third in the league in ice-time and is smart by not taking too many penalties.

Jeff – Erik Karlsson

I recently wrote here at CSN why I thought that Drew Doughty should win the Norris Trophy over Karlsson and Subban so it’s no secret that my heart is with “Dewy,” but my mind and gut tell me that the NHL voters will pick Karlsson to win it.  This trophy has a consistent history of not awarding a player this award that fits the official description of what it should take to win this award, which is ” best defensive player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all around ability in the position.”  Nowhere does it state that the trophy HAS to go to the top offensive defenseman.  There’s a big difference there.

As wonderful and great offensively as Karlsson and P.K. are, they aren’t as reliably sound defensively as Doughty is or have the “all around ability” to play the position as Doughty does, they also give the puck away a lot more too (which isn’t very defensive of them) and don’t lay the “BOOM” as frequently as Doughty does.  All this should greatly effect the “all around ability” factor for those 2 players when it comes to following the actual description. It is what it is, so what can you do?  Karlsson goes home with the trophy but Doughty and P.K. have the most fun out of anyone in Vegas that night period.