The Norris Trophy race has a different look than what was expected back in January. Last year’s winner, Erik Karlsson, has been sidelined for 26 games due to his Achilles injury, while Shea Weber and Alex Pietrangelo haven’t performed to sky-high expectations.
All of that, combined with Nicklas Lidstrom’s retirement, has opened up the Norris field considerably. Here are the top five Norris candidates with only two weeks remaining in the regular season.
1. Ryan Suter, Minnesota Wild
Suter’s tenure in Minnesota got off to a rough start, but the $98-million defenceman has settled in nicely since. Suter has the offensive numbers and defensive résumé to back up his Norris candidacy. Twenty-five of Suter’s 29 points have come in the last 29 games. Facing top competition, he has logged the most minutes of any player in the NHL while carrying a defence corps of unknowns to a respectable level. Since early February, Suter has been the league’s best all-around defenceman — and he should be rewarded for it.
2. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Phoenix Coyotes
The Coyotes’ 21-year-old stud blue-liner may be the Norris front-runner if he played on a playoff team in a bigger market. Ekman-Larsson is a star in the making, and this season has been proof that he can handle big minutes (team-leading 25:06 average ice time) against the opposition’s top forwards. His 21 points in 40 games may not stand out on paper, but this award shouldn’t be determined by offensive numbers. He will win a Norris in the near future; he may just need more time to make himself known as an elite player league-wide.
3. P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens
Erik Karlsson won the Norris based on his staggering offensive numbers, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Subban win it for the same reasons. Despite missing the beginning of the season as an unsigned restricted free agent, Subban leads all NHL defencemen in points. He’s producing at a dynamic point-per-game rate and his 34 points are four short of a career-high — in a lockout-shortened season, no less. However, 23 of his points have come on the power play and he hasn’t faced opposing teams’ top forwards as much as the other candidates listed.
4. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins
Like Ekman-Larsson, Chara’s offensive numbers (17 points in 40 games) won’t jump out at you — but they don’t need to when it comes to the hulking 6-foot-9 defenceman. Chara continues to be the leader of an elite defensive team, and his overall game still hasn’t suffered a drop-off even at 36 years young. There are few defencemen better at even strength, and Boston is annually elite at five-on-five when Chara is on top of his game. He makes everyone around him better and should always be in the Norris conversation.
5. Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins
It will be interesting to see how the voters take Letang’s (and Subban’s) superb offensive season into consideration for a defensive award. Letang’s 2012-13 season has been comparable to that of Karlsson a season ago. Pittsburgh’s No. 1 defenceman isn’t highly regarded for his play in the defensive zone, but he’s such a dynamic offensive player that he’s hard to ignore in this conversation. He does have 29 points, but he has only played in 29 of Pittsburgh’s 41 games. Will his mid-season injury cost him a chance at the Norris?
