Norris Trophy winner debated by NHL.com

The three finalists for the Norris Trophy make for a tight race with two previous winners and the 2020-21 runner-up vying for the award, which is given annually to the best defenseman in the NHL.

Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Norris winner in 2017-18, put up the best statistics of his stellar career.
Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, the 2019-20 winner, stated his case to win a second trophy with numbers not put up by an NHL defenseman in nearly three decades.
Cale Makar, the runner-up for the Norris last season to Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, is trying to become the first Colorado Avalanche player to win the award.
Who is the best defenseman in the NHL for this regular season, as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association? We'll find out when the winner is announced during the 2022 NHL Awards in Tampa on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS), but in the interim, NHL.com asked three writers to each make a compelling argument for why one of the finalists should win.

Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning

Although the other finalists each had a great season, what makes Hedman stand out as the best defenseman is his consistency. This is Hedman's sixth straight season as a Norris Trophy finalist and, somehow, he's won it only once -- in 2017-18. It's reached the point where Hedman is almost taken for granted, but the 31-year-old continues to raise his level of play. In his 13th season in the League, he set NHL career highs with 20 goals, 65 assists and 85 points in 82 games. He finished third in the NHL among defensemen in goals and points and second in assists. He was first in the League among defensemen with 38 power-play points and tied for first in game-winning goals with six. Hedman was 11th in the NHL and led the Lightning averaging 25:05 of ice time per game, helping the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons by going 51-23-8.-- Tom Gulitti, staff writer

Roman Josi, Nashville Predators

Hedman had an outstanding season and is going to go down as one of the all-time greats -- and he still wasn't close to Josi, which tells you how great of a season Josi had. Josi had 96 points (23 goals, 73 assists). That's 10 points more than the next-closest defenseman this season, Cale Makar. That's the highest total for a defenseman in 29 years! Not since Phil Housley had 97 points (18 goals, 79 assists) for the Winnipeg Jets in 1992-93 has a defenseman reached that level. Only seven other defensemen have done it in NHL history: Housley, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, Denis Potvin, Brian Leetch, Al MacInnis and Bobby Orr. When Josi won the Norris in 2019-20, he had 31 fewer points! Hard to ignore those numbers. -- Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist

Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche

A day after the Avalanche had eliminated the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final, Wayne Gretzky was raving about Makar. The NHL's all-time leading scorer was part of TNT's coverage of the series and was wowed by the skill and composure of the young defenseman. "He is so good at both ends of the ice," Gretzky said. "He skates with such ease. He's dominant." Hey, who am I to argue with The Great One? Besides, the numbers back him up. The 23-year-old led all NHL defensemen in goals with 28, becoming just the fifth defenseman in the past 30 years to reach that total (Brent Burns, 29 in 2016-17; Mike Green, 31 in 2008-09; Al MacInnis, 28 in 1993-94; Kevin Hatcher, 34 in 1992-93). He ranked second to Josi among defensemen with 86 points, the most by a blue-liner in franchise history, and was plus-48, fifth among all NHLers. Add it all up, and it says here that Makar should win the Norris this year, the first of multiple ones. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer