With the 2023-24 NHL regular season now underway, there are plenty of early predictions for who will take home some hardware at the 2024 NHL Awards next June.
For the Norris Trophy, which goes to the top defenseman in the league, there are a few viable candidates who are in the early running. Erik Karlsson won the award last season while playing with the San Jose Sharks, but after being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, there may be a bit of a transitional period this year.
That leaves a window open for blueliners like the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar, the Buffalo Sabres’ Rasmus Dahlin and the Dallas Stars’ Miro Heiskanen.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss this season’s Norris Trophy race, and which defenseman might give you the best value to bet on winning the award at the end of the year.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Erik Karlsson is the reigning Norris Trophy winner, and I don’t see a lot of people picking him to win the Norris again this year. I think Rasmus Dahlin’s got a real good shot at this thing. He’s going to be playing on a team that should be better defensively, and I think that will help his own personal metrics.
The Sabres are the sexy playoff pick, everyone wants to talk positively about the Sabres, and I think that could translate into some serious steam for Dahlin and the Norris this year. Who do you have in this race?
Frank Seravalli: I wouldn’t bet against him, but I just think the fact you can still get Cale Makar at +190 on Betano is bananas. He is the best defenseman in the NHL, and I think it’s by a somewhat large margin. When you consider his 2022-23 campaign, he missed 22 games and was still north of a point-per-game, and he averaged 30 minutes a night for chunks of the year as the Avalanche were missing bodies on their back end.
I think you have to allow for some special seasons. I’d throw Miro Heiskanen in there as well. The step that he took last year, going from a previous career-high of 36 points to 73 points in one season. He always defended really well, he always skates like the wind, he’s an unbelievable defenseman, but the fact he was able to add the offensive production to his game that separated him from this exact conversation is a big reason why I think he’s right there in the mix.
You can watch the full show here…
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