One guy who could definitely win it, if he gets healthy, is Kris Letang. It should be between him and Karlsson. Shea Weber, Zach Bogosian, and Mike Green are also likely to be in the running. Seidenberg, Carlson, Schenn, Girardi, Edler, Chara, Seabrook... all potential contenders as well. Pietrangelo and Subban definitely should be, but Pietrangelo needs to develop more offensively and Subban needs to contribute more offense at even-strength; the lion's share of his points last year were scored on the PP.
One guy who could definitely win it, if he gets healthy, is Kris Letang. It should be between him and Karlsson. Shea Weber, Zach Bogosian, and Mike Green are also likely to be in the running. Seidenberg, Carlson, Schenn, Girardi, Edler, Chara, Seabrook... all potential contenders as well. Pietrangelo and Subban definitely should be, but Pietrangelo needs to develop more offensively and Subban needs to contribute more offense at even-strength; the lion's share of his points last year were scored on the PP.
But he still played defense well enough to win it.
Top five defenseman this year will be Suter, Karlsson, Subban, Pietrangelo and Weber.
One guy who could definitely win it, if he gets healthy, is Kris Letang. It should be between him and Karlsson. Shea Weber, Zach Bogosian, and Mike Green are also likely to be in the running. Seidenberg, Carlson, Schenn, Girardi, Edler, Chara, Seabrook... all potential contenders as well. Pietrangelo and Subban definitely should be, but Pietrangelo needs to develop more offensively and Subban needs to contribute more offense at even-strength; the lion's share of his points last year were scored on the PP.
As much as you and I love Seidenberg, he's never getting enough votes for a Norris, especially not when playing with Chara.
Seidenberg, GIrardi, Schenn, Carlson and Seabrook will not get more votes than Pietrangelo and Subban this year or any year.
That's a very bold statement.
Aside from Seabrook, but I don't know how many votes he's ever gotten, what do Seidenberg and Girardi bring that all round defenseman with superstar ability and the ability to control an entire freaking game (Karlsson, Subban, Weber, Pietrangelo, Suter, etc.) don't? Nothing. There's a reason they've never been a finalist.
Seidenberg's highest point mark in a year was 32. He is 32 years old.
Giardi's is 31. He's 29 years old.
Schenn is not even worth mentioning.
You said Pietrangelo needs to "develop more offensively" when he's already had a 51 point season and looked to be on his way to cracking 40 points for a third straight year last year, but the shortened season didn't allow it (24 points in 47 games).
Karlsson, Subban, Suter, Weber, Pietrangelo, Chara, Keith, etc are an entire level higher than Seidenberg, Girardi, definitely Schenn, etc.
Clearly, those other players I mentioned have not yet been finalists. That was my point in mentioning them; I think that group is full of skill and potential, and that they're only a breakout season away from being considered as finalists. But hey, you already know that they'll never get as many votes as Pietrangelo or Suter so I'm just wasting my time speculating.
Subban has a shot. Last year he had the majority of his points come on the powerplay yet still won it.
Letang should never win a Norris trophy, IMO. Well, unless he changes a lot in his game. He's not a bad player, but not Norris-callibre. His offence is good. I wouldn't say elite. He gets a lot of points for touching the puck when Crosby or Malkin is on the ice. His defensive game is one of the worst defensive games I've seen from a top pairing defenseman. He got eaten alive against Boston, and he looked awful against Ottawa as well.
It's not happening again. Suter is the #1 defenseman on his team playing 30 minutes a night a contributing on both ends. When he DID get more votes than Suter, Suter was playing second fiddle to Weber.
I'll safely say Girardi, Seidenberg, etc. will never have more votes than any of the usual guys from here on out.
That's actually a really interesting table - Girardi apparently got 2 votes for best defenceman in the league. Over Karlsson, Weber and Chara, no less!
That's actually a really interesting table - Girardi apparently got 2 votes for best defenceman in the league. Over Karlsson, Weber and Chara, no less!
At least SOME of the writers actually watch hockey!
What really annoys me is the intense overvaluing of scoring from defensemen when it comes to Norris voting. Yes, it's important in game situations, I get that. But it does not necessarily follow that someone who is good at scoring is also a great defensive player.
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