Drew Doughty wins Norris Trophy as top defenseman

By foxsports
Published

Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.

Doughty's first Norris victory ended a lively three-man race that forced voters to decide between pure offensive production and analytical superiority.

Doughty, the two-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, beat out Erik Karlsson of Ottawa and Brent Burns of San Jose.

While Doughty didn't match his competitors' offensive production, voters recognized his two-way prowess for the defense-minded Kings.

"To my teammates, without you, I couldn't have done it," Doughty said. "You guys are everything to me, and we're brothers for life."

Doughty led all defensemen in Corsi percentage at 58.9, and he scored 51 points with a plus-24 rating while playing enormous minutes on the Kings' depleted blue line.

Karlsson, who won the Norris last year, scored a whopping 82 points for the Senators, the most by an NHL defenseman in 20 years. He also played nearly 29 minutes per game, but finished with a minus-2 on a non-playoff team.

Burns nearly matched Karlsson with 75 points, including 27 goals for the Western Conference champion Sharks.

"The two guys I was up against, having a point a game as a defenseman in the NHL and then putting up 27 goals as a defenseman in the NHL, that's just ridiculous," Doughty said. "I can almost guarantee I'll never do that. ... I kind of love that competition. I don't know about (Karlsson), but I'd be OK if this went on for the rest of our careers."

One week after Anze Kopitar was named the Kings' captain, he became the franchise's first Selke Trophy winner.

Anze Kopitar

The Selke goes to the NHL's best defensive forward. Kopitar has been the Kings' leading scorer for nine consecutive seasons, but the Slovenian center's willingness to embrace coach Darryl Sutter's defense-first mindset was a major reason for Los Angeles' run to two Stanley Cup titles in three years from 2012-14.

Kopitar led all NHL forwards in ice time, averaging nearly 21 minutes per game, while finishing second in the league with a plus-34 rating. His puck possession skills and backchecking acumen were key factors in the Kings finishing third in the league in team defense.

Kopitar was a finalist for the award in each of the previous three seasons. He beat out three-time winner Patrice Bergeron of Boston and Anaheim's Ryan Kesler, the 2011 winner.