This is such a tight race.
There is a lot of discussion above that sounds like it is discussion for the MVP award and which D man is most valuable to their team. This award should not weight any merit on who his teammates are or how his team does or if they finish in first place or last place.
From
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=24942
Now I understand that being a D-man on a top team usually means that you are helping your team win.
But what if Karlsson scored 80 points, was plus 25, but Ottawa finished in last place... should he be eliminated because the rest of the team sucked? No
Or what if Josi and Subban both had 70 point seasons and were 1 and 2 in D-man scoring... should they be eliminated because they play on the same team? No.
Simply this award has to go to the best Defenseman this year... and I would vote for Hedman.
Reasons
1) Hedman scored
17 goals... Subban (
16) Doughty (
10) - Thus showing all his points weren't just from him getting secondary assists.
2) Hedman was
plus 32 .....Subban (
18) Doughty (
23) - It would probably provide better analysis if it was a percentage of the Teams even strength goals for and against.
3) Hedman average
25.51 minutes per game - Doughty (
26.50) Subban (
24.07) - So yes Doughty played on average a minute more per game.. but this still shows that Hedman was out there a lot.
4) Hedman had
139 hits. Doughty
(127) Subban (
111) - So this shows that Hedman played the physical part of being a Dman as well. And he played 5 less games than Doughty, so hits per game is even better.
5) Hedman had
110 block shot Doughty (
128) Subban (
90) - So Doughty beats Hedman here... but its not like Hedman wasn't blocking shots. And I think if we consider it as a percentage of shots given up by the team and consider Hedman missing 5 games this is closer than 18 block shots difference.
Conclusion - Based on the 5 points above... Hedman scores, defends, plays a lot, hits and blocks shots better or comparable to the other two finalists at a rate that I feel he should win the award. What else do you want from a D-man, one who plays a lot of minutes, scores, defends, hits and blocks... I think that covers the definition of 'all-around ability'
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