On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out. The penultimate award of the night was the James Norris Memorial Trophy, handed out to the NHL’s best defenseman. This year’s winner is Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar. The other finalists were Predators blueliner Roman Josi and Lightning rearguard Victor Hedman.
Makar led all defensemen in goals this season with 28, becoming just the fifth blueliner in the last 30 years to get that many goals. He also finished second in points (86) to Josi, who had 96. While thought of as an offense-first defender, Makar took a regular turn on Colorado’s penalty kill this season as well, which helped him average 25:40 per contest. While this voting doesn’t cover his playoff performance, the 23-year-old has been dominant in the postseason as well, picking up 26 points in 17 games while his ATOI has jumped up to a little under 27 minutes a night.
Interestingly enough, Makar actually finished second to Josi in first-place votes, 98-92. However, Makar had 22 more second-place selections (98-72) which helped him garner 25 more voting points to secure the victory. He was also the only player to appear on all 195 ballots with Josi not being put on one of them. It’s the closest vote for this award since the 2011-12 campaign when Erik Karlsson edged Shea Weber for the award. Only one other blueliner, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy, received a first-place vote.
The full results of the voting can be found here.
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