Karlsson For Norris? You Must Be Kidding

By JD Lagrange – Well, the NHL is at it again. At least, the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) is. In a head shaking but not surprising news, the league announced the three finalists to the Norris Memorial Trophy and Erik Karlsson is in the top-3. Anyone shocked? Unlikely. But he is far from deserving of being there.

Erik Karlsson finished the season with 100 pts. Impressive, isn’t it? Particularly for a defenseman. But he also finished the season at minus-26. That is the fifth worse differential on his team! Meh, whose are just words, right? Okay, look at it deeper.

  • 26 of Karlsson’s 100 points were obtained on the power play. That leaves 74 points not while on the man advantage. Still impressive… offensively speaking.
  • Now bear with me as it’s a process here. Say he had he not been on the ice for a goal against at even strength or while his team was on the power play, this would mean that he would have been a +74. It’s unrealistic, but we’re heading somewhere with this. Play along.
  • Now get this… In order to get back to zero differential, to break even (with a 0 +/-), he has to be on the ice for 74 goals against at even strength or with the man advantage. Ouch!
  • Because he finished with 100 points and was minus-26 on the season, this means that he was on the ice for 100 goals against (74 + 26) in spite of his 100 points.

Sure, he was on the ice for something like 20 goals against in an empty net. But he was on the ice for them regardless…

And that’s some people’s definition of the “greatest all-round ability”? Gimme a break!

Norris definition

The NHL’s own definition for the Norris Trophy is, and I quote:

The James Norris Memorial Trophy is an annual award given “to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.” The winner is selected in a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers Association at the end of the regular season. Source

You will NEVER convince me that Erik Karlsson is one of the best all-round defensemen in the NHL. The PHWA has changed the meaning of the Norris Trophy. Not surprisingly, it’s the same group that has also changed the meaning for the Frank J. Selke Award, created for the best DEFENSIVE forward in the game. Often, they have awarded that trophy to guys who don’t play short-handed (should be a requisite, no?) and who are accumulating tons of points.

For the PHWA, every award is based on offensive production. They are drawn to offense (even for defensive positions), like moths are to light. I just wish someone invented a zapper for journalists who do such absurdities.

I’ve written about this before, but it’s time to reward the Karlsson’s of this world for their offensive prowess by adding the Bobby Orr Award. But for cryin’ out loud, don’t pretend that a forward playing defense is the greatest all-round defenseman. We’re not as ignorant as some think we are.

Expectations on Offense – Follow Up

By Bob Trask – On September 21st I posted my expectations for offensive production from various players and compared it to the projections made by Scott Cullen. We were close on a few and differed by a fair amount on others. I then averaged our two expectations to come up with a final number. It was not an all-inclusive list because some players were expected to be traded, others were not expected to make the squad and there were a couple of late additions to the season opening roster.

With the Canadiens now having played more than one-quarter of their schedule, now might be a good time to look at the report card of various players – strictly from an offensive production point of view. For the sake of simplicity, I simply going to multiply the current production of each player by 4x except in the case of Mike Matheson who should see a lot more action in the remaining 60 games.

Because I had expected Mike Hoffman to be traded I had not prepared any expectations for him. My mistake! The list is also incomplete because Guhle, Xhekaj, Savard, Harris, Edmundson, Kovacevic, Monahan, Armia and Pezzetta were not included in he original article so no comparison can be made with them either.

Nick SuzukiGAPts
Expectations234467
Projection484896
Cole CaufieldGAPts
Expectations312455
Projection483684
Evgenii DadonovGAPts
Expectations232548
Projection448
Jonathan DrouinGAPts
Expectations113142
Projection01616
Christian DvorakGAPts
Expectations182543
Projection162036
Kirby DachGAPts
Expectations132740
Projection165268
Josh AndersonGAPts
Expectations191433
Projection20828
Brendan GallagherGAPts
Expectations181836
Projection122032
Juraj SlafkovskyGAPts
Expectations181836
Projection12820
Rem PitlickGAPts
Expectations111829
Projection000
Mike MathesonGAPts
Expectations91827
Projection131326
Chris WidemanGAPts
Expectations72027
Projection01616
Jake EvansGAPts
Expectations91524
Projection088
Mike HoffmanGAPts
Projection201232

Suzuki, Caufield and Dach have all exceeded expectations among forwards, while Dvorak, Gallagher and Anderson have come close to meeting expectations for production. I give Slafkovsky a pass because of his limited usage but the remainder of the forwards on this list have disappointed. Among the three forwards not on the original list, only Sean Monahan has been productive offensively. Hoffman was beginning to contribute before his injury and it obvious the team misses him.

It is harder to compare the expectations of the defensemen with their projected production because the entire corps, and its usage is far different that what was anticipated when training camp started

Take a look and assign your own grades to each player.

More reading…