With an NHL regular season that stretches over six months, there are bound to be plenty of highs and lows around the league before the votes are tabulated for end-of-season awards.
Year after year, voting for the Norris Trophy for the league's best defenseman tends to hew pretty close to a standard pattern: rewarding big-minute defensemen who play for very good teams and usually rack up some serious points on the power play.
Pedigree is also important. Defensemen seem to need to have high name recognition and visibility in order to secure votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Defensemen like T.J Brodie of the Calgary Flames and Johnny Boychuk of the New York Islanders have had strong starts in the new season, but at this point, the Norris Trophy candidates who look like they'll stand strong at the end of the season are pretty familiar.
Back in August, I previewed this season's contenders. Here's a look at how the best of the bunch are faring so far this year.
All stats courtesy of NHL.com.
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Article written by Carol Schram
Ranking the Top Norris Trophy Candidates Early in the 2014-15 NHL Season
October 22nd, 2014 by Carol Schram Leave a reply »
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