2023 Norris Trophy winner debated by NHL.com

The 2023 NHL Awards will be held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Monday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS). Eleven award winners will be announced at the ceremony, and the General Manager of the Year winner will be announced during the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft on Wednesday, also in Nashville.

In the lead-up to the events, NHL.com writers will debate who they think should win most of the awards. Today, staff writers David Satriano, Tracey Myers and Tom Gulitti debate the Norris Trophy, which is given annually to the best defenseman in the NHL as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

The three finalists this year are Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, Erik Karlsson of the San Jose Sharks and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche.

Satriano: The three finalists have each won the Norris before: Makar last season, Fox in 2021 and Karlsson twice, in 2012 and 2015 with the Ottawa Senators. But to me, it didn't matter which two players were finalists with Karlsson, the clear favorite to win. He led defensemen in goals (25), assists (76) and points (101 points) and was the sixth defenseman in NHL history to reach 100 points in a season, and the first since Brian Leetch had 102 for the New York Rangers in 1991-92. Any time you're the sixth player to accomplish a feat in the NHL's 100-plus seasons, it's impressive. Karlsson also was fifth in the NHL in ice time per game (25:37) while playing all 82 games. I know the Sharks did not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that shouldn't penalize Karlsson, who had one of the greatest seasons ever by someone at his position.

Myers: There's no doubt Karlsson had a tremendous season for the Sharks, one that I wasn't sure he'd have with recent health issues. But I'm going to go with Adam Fox in this argument. No offense to Karlsson and all those points he amassed, but I'm going to look at the other side of it. Karlsson was on the ice for 126 even-strength goals, but Fox was on the ice for 54. I'm also going to give Fox credit for playing on the penalty kill (2:07 of short-handed ice time per game, 172:53 for the season); Karlsson played just over 30 minutes all season on the kill. Maybe I'm being simplistic in my argument (hey, it's how I roll), but for me, I'm still giving a defenseman more credit for trying to nullify production than creating it.

Gulitti: Karlsson and Fox are worthy candidates, but my pick for the Norris is the defenseman who won it last season, Cale Makar. Unfortunately, injuries limited Makar to 60 games this season, preventing him from putting up even better offensive numbers. He still was ninth in the NHL among defensemen with 66 points (17 goals, 49 assists) and was the only one other than Karlsson (1.23) to average better than a point per game at 1.10, helping Colorado (51-24-7) finish first in the Central Division. He also led the League in averaging 26:23 of ice time per game, including 2:44 on the penalty kill (more than Fox and Karlsson), demonstrating how important he was to Colorado's success. When Makar was on the ice, the Avalanche were plus-287 in 5-on-5 shot attempts (Karlsson was plus-237 and Fox plus-226), and he was on the ice for 55 even-strength goals against (one more than Fox).

Satriano: For me, Makar being limited to 60 games, or less than 75 percent of his team's schedule, is why I wouldn't give him the award. Plus he and Fox each played on a better team and didn't have to do as much as Karlsson. Fox played with the likes of Mika Zibanejad (39 goals), Chris Kreider (36) and Artemi Panarin (29), and Makar with Mikko Rantanen (55) and Nathan MacKinnon (42). San Jose lacked game-breakers besides Karlsson, especially after forward Timo Meier (31 goals in 57 games with San Jose) was traded to the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 26. I understand Karlsson was minus-26, but the Sharks controlled 53.5 percent of shots at 5-on-5 with him on the ice. And if you take away his power-play points, the 33-year-old would still have had 74 points, which would have been tied with Dougie Hamilton of the Devils for fourth among all defensemen, and two behind Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks and Josh Morrissey of the Winnipeg Jets, who would've led the position in points.

Myers:Sure, all valid points. As far as health (the Makar argument), Fox has fortunately had that in his NHL career thus far. He played all 82 games this season. When he won the Norris in 2020-21, he played 55 of 56 games in a season abbreviated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This season, Fox led the Rangers with 88 takeaways (2.64 per 60 minutes) and was third on the team with 125 blocked shots. Yep, I'm digging deep into the stats, but this is my point and I'm sticking to it: Fox is out there to defend, not to score, even though he can do the latter as well. The 25-year-old has been impressive in his four NHL seasons and I think Fox has earned his second Norris.

Gulitti: If the argument against Makar is that he missed games because of injury, that's not much, especially when you consider that his numbers still compare favorably with Karlsson's and Fox's. And though he had a stronger supporting cast than Karlsson, the Avalanche had a host of injuries that depleted their lineup throughout the season (though Rantanen did play the full 82 games), which made Makar even more important when he was in the lineup and contributed to him leading in the NHL in average ice time. And many of those were important minutes in important games when the Avalanche were competing for first in their division while Karlsson and the Sharks were well out of the playoff race, lessening the stress he played under. Despite his limited games, Makar tied Morrissey for second in the League among defensemen with six game-winning goals, behind Hamilton (seven).