Colorado Avalanche
Cale Makar still the betting favorite to win Norris Trophy
There is probably no more hotly contested/debated NHL awards subject right now than who will win the Norris Trophy: Cale Makar or Roman Josi.
I’m going to save my own analytical opinion on that for another time, but I wanted to point out that, among the sportsbooks who give odds on NHL trophies at least, Makar is the current favorite – albeit very slight.
Makar is -145 to win the Norris at one of the books I looked at, and -140 at another. Roman Josi is the only other player who is even close, at +115, with the next odds-on favorite being Victor Hedman at a whopping +5000.
The writers vote on the Norris Trophy. I’m not going to do any secret polls on that. Josi has gotten a lot of favorable press of late – and rightly so – with his points total being higher than Makar’s. Makar has better underlying defensive numbers than Josi. There is a sentiment, or at least it seems, that Josi deserves more credit for putting up his offensive numbers on a lesser team.
Again, I’m going to wait before giving my take on who should win. Probably, right when the regular season is over.