Even though there are about 20 games left to play, the Norris Trophy race is finished. Brent Burns is obviously the best defenseman this year and it’s not near. He is even gaining some recognition in the Hart Trophy conversation and when the Sharks star was to win it, he’d become the first blue-liner to claim the NHL’s MVP trophy since Chris Pronger did it 17 years back.
BetOnline has pegged him as the enormous -1500 favorite, meaning it’s highly unlikely anyone rips him off the pedestal on which he resides and the fat woman, also called Gary Bettman, can begin warming up her vocal cords.
So what is Burns doing to make such high praise and major award thought? Well, for starters, he has 27 goals to go along with his 39 assists, is a +23 and is averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time a game. His offensive numbers rival those of their best forwards in the league and that he does it without abandoning his place at the defensive end. He’s more power-play points than NHL points leader Connor McDavid and is also tied for first with Drew Doughty and Ryan Suter with 4.57 defensive stage shares apiece.
Doughty won the award in 2015-16 based mostly on his remarkable defensive stage shares amount so if Burns proceeds to take care of his responsibilities before Martin Jones, there’s no reason to deny him the Norris honors.
If Burns doesn’t win the Norris this season, there is something basically wrong with the way we decide who wins awards. He is beard and shoulders above anybody else on the list and Erik Karlsson, who’s second in the likelihood at +900, ended runner-up to Doughty in Norris voting this past year and he had a better season than he’s having this year.
Another factor that should not be ignored is how awesome a man Burns is. The dude is a shining beacon of entertainment in a league that tends to lack personality. Why the NHL is not encouraging the hell out of the man is beyond me.Archived Articles
Among the most controversial moves during the NHL offseason was that the trade that sent P.K. Subban into Nashville and Shea Weber north of the border to Montreal. Critics hounded Marc Bergevin along with the Canadiens’ front office for the move but with the Habs beginning their year 9-0-1 and Weber being a league-best +14, the complaint is starting to silence.
The chances have been updated for Norris Trophy futures and Weber has climbed the board and today sits right behind Erik Karlsson at +325. The Habs blue-line bomber not just leads all players in plus/minus, in addition, he sits third in points for defensemen with 10 and has pounded in four goals — three of these to the power play.
P.K., on the other hand, is -7 via 10 games and is shooting an awful 8.3 percent. His team sits dead in the Central Division with just 3 wins and has been struggling to place the puck in the net. I still think the Predators are a fantastic group and Subban is — obviously — a good player. BetOnline is supplying a +1400 line for P.K. to win the Norris but I think you can avoid this one — Subban is too much of a risk/reward player to ever post the leading defensive numbers required of a Norris winner.
Weber’s plus/minus and other defensive amounts will be encouraged astronomically by playing facing Carey Price this year and when the Canadiens keep winning, the big blue-liner is a complete shoo-in to take this award even if he fails to continue to keep pace with Brent Burns and Karlsson in the points race.
Drew Doughty won the Norris last year despite posting 31 fewer points than Karlsson, who received the second-most votes. He did, however, rate the league in defensive point stocks — a stat Weber currently leads the NHL in.
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