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The NHL has no shortage of awards recognizing the league's best in various aspects, but only one of them, the Norris Trophy, recognizes defensemen.
Sure, defensemen are eligible to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP, but considering only one (Chris Pronger in 1999-2000) has won it in the past 50 years, that's not really saying much.
There's a clear imbalance in the award lineup, but San Jose Sharks defenseman Mark-Edouard Vlasic has an idea to fix it. In addition to the Norris Trophy, Vlasic would also introduce an award for the best defensive defenseman, similar to how the Selke Trophy recognizes the best defensive forward.
"I hope down the road, they give out two trophies to defensemen," Vlasic said in an interview with San Jose Hockey Now. "I think it’s absolutely absurd that — they deserve it, you know?"
"The Selke? Of course, give it to them, best defensive forward. But there’s none for defensemen, which is outrageous," he continued.
Over the past several years, the Norris Trophy has increasingly gone to defenseman with higher offensive upside. The past three winners have all scored over 85 points (Cale Makar had 86 in 2021-22, Erik Karlsson had 101 2022-23 and Quinn Hughes had 92 in 2023-24), despite varying degrees of success in their own ends. Those players obviously deserve recognition, but so do those who shut down opposing forwards.
As for what the NHL could name such an award, that's not important to Vlasic.
"It doesn’t matter what they name it. They have a Vezina and a Jennings, they have two for goalies. They have one for defensemen, two for goalies, and the rest are forwards. That makes no sense.
"It’s been talked about for so long, still no one’s made any adjustments. The only people that can change it are the actual people that vote for it, right? If the people that vote for it said, “We want this in” it could change something."
Vlasic, 37, could have contended for such an award at his peak. The veteran blue-liner received several down-ballot Norris votes, even finishing 11th in voting in 2017-18, despite never surpassing 40 points in a season.
However, Vlasic's suggestion isn't for himself, but for the league at large.
"The only reason I’m pushing it is — I’m not pushing myself — even if I would have won 10 of them, or 12, I would have traded it in for one Cup. Individual awards, I would trade any one in to help this team. Any player on any team would say the same thing."
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