As the stellar season by San Jose Sharks
defenseman Erik Karlsson winds down, it brings to mind something NHL fans have been clamored for: an offensive defenseman
award.
With a final regular-season game to play Thursday, Karlsson has 100 points, the 15th-highest total by a defenseman in league history. This year’s point production by Karlsson is the most by a defenseman since the 1991-92 season. The all-time record for points in a season by a defenseman is 139, set by Boston’s Bobby Orr in the 1970-71 season.
With 25 goals and 75 assists, Karlsson seems to be a lock to win the Norris Trophy for the league’s top defenseman.
In the past 11
seasons, the Norris Trophy winner has led the league in goals, points or both
six times for the position. Karlsson led the league in both when he won in 2012 and just in
points in 2015. Cale Makar, last year’s winner, paced the league’s blue-liners
in goals.
Shouldn’t there be more to being the best blue-liner than
filling the net? After all, “defense” is in the name of the position, and while “the
best defense is good offense,” there should be room for two awards.
On the front end, there is the Art Ross Trophy for most points – usually awarded to a forward – as well as the Selke Trophy for “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” according to the NHL’s website.
The Selke is not
just given to the highest-scoring forward because of the earlier cliché.
Patrice Bergeron and Anze Kopitar have combined to win seven of the past 11
Selke Trophies because they are shutdown, responsible centers.
So why shouldn’t there be an award just for the highest-scoring defenseman? The precedent is there already with the Ross and Selke, and
it would make room to acknowledge both the best offensive and defensive
defenseman in the NHL.
To the voters’ credit, there has been less points bias in recent
years. Mark Giordano, Roman Josi and Adam Fox each won the Norris without
leading the league in either goals or assists, and some outlets are still making cases for non-Karlsson candidates this season.
But sometimes it is hard to look past high point totals like Karlsson’s this season. Implementing a scoring trophy for defensemen – often suggested and referred to by fans and the Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky, as the “Bobby Orr Trophy” – would offer more accolades to go around and allow more star players to shine from the back end.
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