The James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League’s top defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.
The award is usually voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, but will be subject to our panel today.
With the rules for this vote excluding Montreal Canadiens players, the voters were slightly thrown, and a couple decided to vote for P.K. Subban anyway, but everyone submitted a list outside of P.K. to tabulate the actual results.
The winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the 2013 season according to our panel, is the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ Kris Letang. Letang edged out Ryan Suter and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Ekman-Larsson actually had the most first place votes, with three to Letang’s two, but he didn’t receive any second or third place votes.
Letang was a point machine for the Penguins, tying Subban’s production for the lead among all defensemen in just 35 games while playing top opponents. Unlike Subban, Letang isn’t driving the bus for offense for the Penguins, but his dominance this season is undeniable.
