Norris Trophy Top 5: Who's Leading the Race as the NHL's Best D-Man?

Now that the NHL's 2024-25 regular season is nearly a full month into its post-dash portion, it's time to start focusing on the finish line and all that comes with it.

Would-be standings positions. Potential playoff matchups. Likely award winners.

The B/R hockey team spent much of the post-holiday week on that third topic in particular, contemplating which players are in the just-past-mid-season mix to capture the James Norris Memorial Trophy–presented annually to the defenseman who demonstrates the greatest all-round ability in the position.

Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes was that man last season, earning 172 of 194 first-place votes from the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

It's no longer your grandfather's award, which means it's no longer solely about defense. In fact, much like quarterbacks in football, the job description of a top-shelf blue-liner has evolved to include elite puck-moving as another means of holding opponents in check.

Given that reality, we took a look across the league's 32 cities and came up with a list of the five names most likely to be called when the envelope is opened. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.

Evan Bouchard, Edmonton Oilers: The fifth-place finisher last season, Bouchard crossed into point-per-game player territory with a significant power-play role. It's more about defense this season with a team allowing the fourth-fewest shots (26.4) and sixth-fewest goals (2.71).

Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning: He's not among the favorites but it'd be no injustice if the award went to Hedman, a five-time finalist who won it in 2017-18. An elder statesman these days at age 34, who's a plus-8 while averaging better than 23 minutes per game.

Miro Heiskanen, Dallas Stars: The third pick in the 2017 draft has been a steady contributor since his arrival in Dallas, where he's averaged better than 25 minutes per game this season and, like Bouchard in Edmonton, continued to be a force on the power play.

Lane Hutson, Montreal Canadiens: We'll go ahead and pencil this 20-year-old rookie as a future Norris winner given his instant impact with the Canadiens, with whom he's been a consistent playmaker and already strung together multiple five-game point streaks.

Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights: It's been a work in continual progress for Theodore, drafted 26th overall in 2013. He began his career with two years in Anaheim but has evolved with the Golden Knights and has been a plus player for five straight seasons.

Jakob Chychrun is no stranger to B/R lists.

The 16th overall pick in 2016 was frequently included on trade target lists across seven seasons with the dear, departed Arizona Coyotes before he was indeed dealt to Ottawa at the 2023 deadline. He then was on the move again last summer when the Senators shipped him to Washington for a player and a pick at the 2026 draft.

To say it's been a positive career change is an understatement.

His elite skating, powerful shot and exceptional hockey IQ–not to mention consistent health, for a change–have come together for the Capitals, whose 33 wins, 71 points and +53 goal differential led the league through Saturday's games.

Chychrun's 13 goals are tops among Washington defensemen and fourth in the league for the position, his 0.85 goals per 60 minutes are third among blue-liners, and he's on track to finish this season with career-highs of 23 goals, 33 assists and 55 points.

The second first-rounder in our top five (13th overall, 2013), Josh Morrissey is another player whose progress up the Norris contenders list has spiked dramatically in 2024-25.

The 6-foot, 195-pounder's development into an elite defenseman was successfully steered by since-retired Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness, who saw his pet blue-line project take fifth in voting for the award in 2022-23 and seventh last season.

Morrissey's competitiveness and work ethic are again apparent in his ninth go-round as a full-time NHL'er, during which he leads the Jets in ice time (24:05) and has first-unit roles on both the power play and in shorthanded situations.

He'll play for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off next month and figures to get additional important minutes come playoff time in Winnipeg, which led both the Central Division and Western Conference through Saturday's games and has won just one postseason series since a trip to the final four in 2018.

No disrespect to the first seven names mentioned, but it's a really three-horse race for the Norris this time around. The dark horse among the three comes from the team whose performance through 50 games is among the biggest surprises.

To say the offseason in Columbus was tumultuous is an understatement, but the Blue Jackets are in the Eastern playoff mix thanks largely to Werenski, who didn't draw a vote in last season's Norris polling but is a top-two commodity in goals (16, tied for first), assists (38, tied for second) and points (54, tied for first) among defensemen through Saturday's games.

His 1,339 minutes of ice time are also tops among all blue-liners, his shots on goal per 60 minutes (8.47) are second, and his current offensive pace would yield 26 goals and 62 assists over 82 games–good for the team lead with 89 points.

When it comes to winning the Norris, repetition is kind of a thing.

In fact, no fewer than 13 players have captured it multiple times since it was first awarded in 1954, comprising 50 of the 70 overall winners.

That's obviously a good sign for Quinn Hughes, the 25-year-old who broke through for his first Norris last summer after career highs with 17 goals, 75 assists and 92 points.

That performance helped the Canucks hang their first Pacific Division banner and their first in any division since they took the fifth of five straight Northwest titles in 2012-13.

His candidacy for a repeat Norris is boosted by a quick glance at the current statistical leads at the position, which Hughes shares in both goals (16) and points (54) with Werenski.

A slight uptick in his current 96-point scoring pace could help, too, and give him the 16th 100-point season by a blueliner in NHL history. Eleven of the first 15 have yielded a Norris.

No one has won more Norris trophies than Bobby Orr, who earned eight in a row and revolutionized the position in a remarkable run from 1967 to 1975.

So when a modern defenseman is compared to Orr, it's not faint praise.

That's where Colorado's Cale Makar finds himself in the sixth year of an NHL career that's already yielded a Calder, a Conn Smythe and a Stanley Cup, not to mention the Norris he was presented after the 2021-22 season.

That was when a guy named Wayne Gretzky first connected him to Orr.

"(He's) the closest player we've seen that offensively and defensively can make an impact on the game that much," Gretzky said during that spring's playoffs, "(since) probably Bobby Orr."

It sounds hyperbolic, but the eye test and the numbers say it's not.

Already a four-time Norris finalist at age 26, he's among the league's best skaters at any position, is second to Werenski in shot attempts by a defenseman (368), and is both first on his team and third in the league in overall ice time (25:42). And of the top-15 ice-time players in the league, his eight minutes of penalties are second fewest.

So while it's true his Norris total may never match Orr's eight, if you're taking a flier today on whose name will be called come late June, Makar's the best bet to get a step closer to his Hall of Fame doppelganger.