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.
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I never really cared about individual awards. Josi probably deserves it as much as Makar IMO. All I care about is the Lord Stanley Cup engraved with Cale Makar’s name on it.
I 100% agree. No one remembers an individual honor (unless you’re a crazy fan or nerd), but EVERYONE remembers a Stanley Cup win.
If the Norris were to be awarded for the month of March alone, I would have no problem with Roman Josi winning the damn thing. I mean he’s scored a freakish 28 pts in 14 games that month!! But if you look at the season a a whole, I don’t see how Josi is the better defenseman. Not only is Makar the more consistent scorer, Makar also leads in stats like goals (26 to 19), GWG (6 to 3), OTG (3 to 0) and % primary points (66% to 62%). Without secondary assists, they both 54 pts with Makar a… Read more »
Dater: “I’m going to save my own analytical opinion on that for another time”
dp10: “Hold my beer!”
Seriously, good job!
I’m resigned to the idea that Josi will win the Norris this year, and I’m fine with that – he’s a great player. The only thing that gets me about the whole process is that the same writers that will argue that their vote for him over Makar is that Josi did that on a weaker team. Then they’ll turn around and defend their McDavid Hart votes saying that you can’t hold it against him that he plays with Draisitl.
Exactly this. The Norris is about the best defenseman, not a measurement of value to whatever team on which he plays. That is what the Hart is for.
1 v 1 Makar would turn Josi into fine powder. It’s no contest.
I really dislike the narrative that Josi deserves more credit because he plays on a weaker team, so in essence they are discrediting Makar because he plays on a better team
Especially because Makar is perhaps a big part of why the Avs are ruling it this year!
What a pointless article.
The argument with the better team and teammates only ever counts against the Avs!
If it were taken into account for other teams, neither MacDavid nor Draisaitl could’ve ever won a Hart. And Matthews couldn’t be a finalist – and probable winner – this year, either!
It is beyond ridiculous! Makar is one of the main reasons the Avalanche are as good as they are!
As was, of course, MacKinnon in 2018 when he had the Hart stolen from him!