By J.D. Lagrange, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

Times have changed. Hockey has changed. The voting for NHL Awards seems to have changed as well. Perhaps in an era where hockey is being played in hot climates, in so-called non-traditional markets, when Las Vegas is working hard to convince the NHL that it has what it takes to support a team, is it also time to add one more award?

PENTICTON, BC. – For the 2014-2015 season, the finalists for the Norris Trophy are Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings, Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators and P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens. Out of the three, only Doughty (14) isn’t in the top ten in scoring amongst defensemen and that should tell us something about his all-around play, or at the very least, raise some interesting questions.

The fact is that out of the three, the Kings’ defenseman is the one who fits best the true definition of the James Norris Trophy. Here is the definition taken straight from the NHL’s web site:

The James Norris Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.

Some great defensemen have won the Norris over the years but it seems like the selection criteria has changed recently, most notably since the arrival of Erik Karlsson who won the award in 2012, for what seems to be for his offensive contribution solely. Karlsson, in my opinion, is not a good all-round defensemen. He is outstanding, the best in the game in fact, when it comes to offense. But defensively, it’s a whole different story.

And if we as Habs’ fans were to take our rose-coloured glasses off, if only we had the opportunity to closely watch every Kings, Predators or Blackhawks’ games, we would easily acknowledge that our beloved P.K. is not (yet) in the category of players as guys like Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and Duncan Keith, to name a few. While they may not be quite as dominant on offense as Karlsson and Subban, they are far ahead of those two when it comes to their play in their own zone as shut-down defensemen.

Remember that the award is voted on by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and that crew is just like all of us. So some treat awards as a popularity contest and others can be  influenced by the spectacular offensive plays that we see on television. With the exception of goaltenders, it’s offense more so than defense that makes the highlight of the night more often than not.

And that is the definition of the Norris Trophy, the greatest all-round ability in the position.

Historical winners

No one has won the Norris Trophy more often than the great Bobby Orr, who has won it eight times in his injury-shortened career and while few of today’s fans remember seeing him play, he is more remembered for his outstanding offensive contribution. If you ask anyone who has played with or against him, or fans that have had the luxury of watching his career, they’ll tell you that he was an outstanding defensive defenseman as well… and tough as nails.

Doug Harvey and Nicklas Lindstrom were not known for being the best offensive defensemen (although not too shabby), but they were known as the best all-around defensemen in their era, having won the Norris Trophy seven times each.

Are we starting to notice a trend here? If we look at the rest of the list of winners, only Paul Coffey (twice) is questionable as a winner. The Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson, Raymond Bourque, Chris Chelios, Rod Langway, Zdeno Chara, Scott Niedermayer, Duncan Keith and company were (are) all outstanding in their own zone. They are dominant hockey players who were also shutdown players not only on their team, but across the NHL and even at the international level.

Bobby Orr Award

Seeing that times change and fans want offense, hate the tie games, and even invent new statistics to justify their opinions, perhaps this is the perfect time to create a new award as the league did with the Maurice “Rocket” Richard award, given to the league’s top goals scorer.

What if they awarded the Bobby Orr Trophy to the top defenseman leading the league in scoring and leave the Norris Trophy to the best all-around defenseman, as it was intended to be? Oh there were certainly be years where the two trophies would be awarded to the same person but most times, the best defenseman is often not the leading point’s getter amongst his peers.

This season, the Bobby Orr trophy would be awarded to Erik Kalsson who finished six points ahead of P.K. Subban and Brent Burns (who also spent time at forward.)

In my opinion, the biggest losers of the “new way” of voting are Shea Weber in Nashville, John Carlson in Washington and Duncan Keith in Chicago. Along with Drew Doughty, those should be your Norris finalists this year.

Subban

Where does Subban ranks amongst defenseman in the league? I’ve been accused of hating Subban in the past for calling it the way it is. In Montreal, it seems like one must jump on the bandwagon, otherwise you are accused of being a “hater”. Well I’ve got news for those people. I love P.K. Subban and what he brings to the Canadiens. But like in anything else in life, I refuse to believe that he is flawless, of being blinded by his flashes of brilliance.

Subban is, in my opinion, better defensively than Erik Karlsson and Kristopher Letang. Offensively, he is close to those two guys so for that reason, I personally rank him ahead of the Sens and Pens defensemen. I would also take Subban over Dennis Wideman, who finished only four points back of Subban while having played two less games.

Defensively, there are several defensemen ahead of the Canadiens’ superstar. We’ve talked about Keith, Doughty and Weber already but Mark Giordano, Alex Pietrangelo and Niklas Kronwall are, amongst others, ahead of Subban defensively as shutdown defensemen.

It’s no easy task to determine the best all-around player at such a difficult position, where a goaltender, a defense partner or a coach’s system can help or not such players’ efficiency. Personally, I rank Subban in the top 10 in the league, perhaps pushing for the top 5. He just turned 26 and he has a lot of hockey left in him. Time will tell if he’s able or not to lead his team the way Duncan Keith has, if he can become that all-around shutdown defenseman or not. One thing is for sure though, he has come a long way and he wants to be the best, which is definitely a key ingredient to success.