Norris Finalists

[ericdaoust]

Doughty has this one. If you pay attention to the media you can tell which way the wind is blowing for most awards.

[blackaces]

Doughty has this one. If you pay attention to the media you can tell which way the wind is blowing for most awards.

I agree. When my son-in-law was talking to MacLellan yesterday he asked him if he thought his boy Karlsson ( he's a Sens fan ) would beat MacLellan's boy ( Burns as his former coach ) and he said neither would win, & that Doughty would win. But I'm not sure if that would be MacLellan's pick or if he just saying who he felt was going to win.

[Ingolo]

I really think this year is going to be a three horse race when the voting comes in.

Karlsson will get tons of votes for being an absolute beast offensively and not nearly as bad defensively as some people always say. The man may not be elite with his defensive skills, but he skates better than the vast majority of players. His PDO (999) this season was almost exactly where it should be, and that's playing almost half of every game without a top tier defensive partner. Not only that, but he also sat 1 blocked shot outside of the top 10 this year. There's a lot more issues with the Ottawa defensive game than their #1 dman.

Burns also had an amazing offensive campaign. Again, not among the elite on the defensive side, but still a top-tier option that any team would trust with huge minutes. I think the fact that he had the most goals from the blueline this year gets him plenty of votes, plus that ridiculous shot volume is simply amazing. Burns was also a powerplay monster this year. Putting up more points in fewer minutes per game than Karlsson. Burns' defensive game was kind of in the same boat as Karlsson's when it came to his partner. Again, great defensive player, just not elite in that aspect.

Doughty had a great defensive season where the other two were amazing offensively. His offense was also the best of his career, even with a lower than usual shooting percentage. I think one thing that should be mentioned though is that Doughty had the highest offensive zone start % of the three. Not that that is always an indicator of the difficulty of their assignments, especially since he also saw the most PK time of the three, but with an OZone% closing in on 60% you would have to hope to see solid +/- and shot volume. 9 times out of 10 though, Doughty will be the superior defender of the three.

I think a lot of the decision comes down to how the writers think the award should be handed out. Do they go with the best defensive defenceman? The best offensive? Or the most valuable defenceman to their team? I think, depending on who you ask, those things will lead to a lot of difference of opinion between voters. To be honest, I would love this to be a really tight race, and hopefully not one overly influenced by the feeling of "Well player X deserves to have their name on the trophy, even if this wasn't their best performance." There are enough reasons to vote for any of the three that it really doesn't need to be some kind of lifetime achievement award.