2020-21 Norris Trophy candidates: Adam Fox, Victor Hedman, Cale Makar

[Cyclones21]

Then, your a very smart man!

Unlike this guy. Your heart picks your team not your head but hey it's an easy comment to make so enjoy.

 

[Alan Wake]

Last year Josi robbed the Norris. NHL better do Hedman some justice, since he damn sure won't win the Conn Smythe again if Tampa is fortunate enough to repeat. Not with how Pointer is playing.

Nobody is close to Hedman as best defenseman in the league at this point.

 

[RorschachWJK]

This should be Makar.

 

[majormajor]

Last year Josi robbed the Norris. NHL better do Hedman some justice, since he damn sure won't win the Conn Smythe again if Tampa is fortunate enough to repeat. Not with how Pointer is playing.

Nobody is close to Hedman as best defenseman in the league at this point.

"At this point" more generally I could imagine Hedman as the best D, sure. And maybe he is owed it for some past thing, I have no idea. But he wasn't the best D in the 2020-2021 regular season, which is what this award is for. You can go back and watch him in April and May and clear that question up pretty quick. It's not even debatable.

 

[majormajor]

Don't care...Makar and Fox are both pretty equally deserving. All I know is Fox and Makar should and will demand contracts that will finally silence the groups of fans of the teams they play for who constantly flex how great the NYR/COL cap situations are

Don't get me wrong...they'll be worth every penny. But man, if Subban got 8 x 9 mil 7 years ago after winning a shortened-season Norris with a much smaller cap at the time (it was 69 mil when he signed), these guys should both break the f***ing bank.

Rangers cap situation isn't great at all. Trouba? Kreider? For a team that is fresh out of a rebuild that is disappointing.

I've never heard someone boast about their cap situation.

Why are people boasting about cap situations? That's weird. And strange for you to care about it. How about we look at who is good at playing ice hockey instead?

 

[IceBjoern]

I would rank them (this year)

1. Fox
2. Makar
3. Hedman

Overall:

1. Hedman
2. Makar
3. Fox

 

[WaW]

Rangers cap situation isn't great at all. Trouba? Kreider? For a team that is fresh out of a rebuild that is disappointing.

I've never heard someone boast about their cap situation.

Why are people boasting about cap situations? That's weird. And strange for you to care about it. How about we look at who is good at playing ice hockey instead?

How about you live your life how you want to and not worry so much about what I'm doing? What a strange post lol.

 

[Kupo]

Rangers cap situation isn't great at all. Trouba? Kreider? For a team that is fresh out of a rebuild that is disappointing.

Rangers are going to have about 25M in cap space next year.

 

[Machinehead]

Saving this for anytime somebody defends their take with what the players think lol

 

[LetsGoRangers2021]

Well, isn't that the point, the best defenseman in hockey should get the Norris, not the one on a bad team that padded stats against 3 of the worst teams in hockey. BTW, 5 goals is actually not very good with the PP the Rangers put out there!

You are literally missing the point.

 

[TGWL]

I feel like some people want to pretend this season wasn't extremely unusual in a way that has never before been seen and probably will never be seen again.
No, Tampa did not play against Buffalo, Philly or NJD, three of the four teams that allowed the most goals in the league. Out of the Norris nominees, Fox is the only one that had that opportunity, and statistically; it helped him a lot.

Fox had 25 games without a point. 17 of them came against Boston, NYI, and Washington.

In the last 6 games of the season, which was like a playoff series for the Rangers to determine if they were going to go through to the post-season, Fox had 0 points and -4 against those 3 teams.

Even a Hedman at 70-80% is imo the best d-man out of these 3 nominees if you actually want to win something.

2 teams in Tampa's division had 3 more points than NJD without more regulation wins...
Also, points, points, points, points...

Yes, NYR played like completely crap the last 2 weeks. Also, yes, when Lindgren went down and Fox had to play by himself on the top pair, he didn't get any points. But what made Fox so good this season wasn't the amount of points he put up.

 

[Alan Wake]

"At this point" more generally I could imagine Hedman as the best D, sure. And maybe he is owed it for some past thing, I have no idea. But he wasn't the best D in the 2020-2021 regular season, which is what this award is for. You can go back and watch him in April and May and clear that question up pretty quick. It's not even debatable.

He's not 100% healthy and he still played in April and May.

Just a hint, April and May aren't the only months of the season. So, that said, yes he was the best D in 2020-21. Just like he was last year when he didn't win.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Will straight up admit that Hughes is not on the level of Makar or Fox.

 

[majormajor]

He's not 100% healthy and he still played in April and May.

Just a hint, April and May aren't the only months of the season. So, that said, yes he was the best D in 2020-21. Just like he was last year when he didn't win.

You can't be best D in the league if you're not one of your own teams best D for 40% of the season. I know he was injured, he was closer to 50% than 100% which is why he shouldn't have even been nominated.

 

[Phil McKraken]

I know Hedman doesn't deserve it for this season, but I also know he was steamrolling both Makar and Fox until he played injured for two months. That's including in points per game over Makar by the way. So I hope he wins it anyway.

 

[Seanaconda]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the top two teams in the division were Pittsburgh and Washington, right?

His stat line against them? 16gp 3g 14p +7

I wouldn't bother , this person just learnt how to use the exclamation mark key the other day. Fox has a good chance of winning it tbh.

 

[Seanaconda]

I would rank them (this year)

1. Fox
2. Makar
3. Hedman

Overall:

1. Hedman
2. Makar
3. Fox

Its foxes and makars second year why wouldn't you have them tied for the overall spot . Hedman has history at least , Fox better this year makar last year .

I wouldn't separate them

 

[AvsFan29]

Saving this for anytime somebody defends their take with what the players think lol

Well yah…Hedman has been around for a long time. Players have had a chance to play against him, and he’s been consistently one of the top Dmen for years. Makar and Fox are basically new players, and only a limited number of teams even got a chance to play against them this season.

Both had better seasons than Hedman by a decent margin. Their stats are much better than his.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I hope it's Fox just so he gets a bigger contract and it ruins NYR's cap.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

You can't be best D in the league if you're not one of your own teams best D for 40% of the season. I know he was injured, he was closer to 50% than 100% which is why he shouldn't have even been nominated.

Yeah, I don't think it'd be a small group that walked away more impressed with Sergachev toward the end of the season than Hedman. That's how I felt any time I caught Tampa.

Not sure I understand how the 'he was injured so he's still the best' thing is supposed to work. If he's the best he would play like it... but he was injured.. and not playing like the best... so he isn't the best.

 

[Synergy27]

Makar is better than Fox offensively, but Fox is way, way better than Makar defensively. Fox is absolutely the kind of player that casual fans will simply never fully appreciate because they don’t see him day in and day out and I am quite fine with that honestly.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I hope it's Fox just so he gets a bigger contract and it ruins NYR's cap.

Yeah I'm a big fan of Fox, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Rangers pay him his full worth, which would probably mean tying up ~$20M+ between him and Panarin.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Yeah I'm a big fan of Fox, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Rangers pay him his full worth, which would probably mean tying up ~$20M+ between him and Panarin.

It’s a good point. This is something I think I’d rather avoid. You want players to get accolades, but if they don’t, it could buy you an extra 2-3 of cap space.

I think it’s possible Fox could give the Rangers a hometown discount though. If any of the Rangers young players did it’d probably be Fox.

 

[Lays]

Last year Josi robbed the Norris. NHL better do Hedman some justice, since he damn sure won't win the Conn Smythe again if Tampa is fortunate enough to repeat. Not with how Pointer is playing.

Nobody is close to Hedman as best defenseman in the league at this point.

Nobody is close to Hedman as best defenseman despite like 10 defenseman having better seasons than him this past year? Fox and Makar were much better than Hedman this past season

 

[The S5]

Nobody is close to Hedman as best defenseman despite like 10 defenseman having better seasons than him this past year? Fox and Makar were much better than Hedman this past season

Nonsense. Hedman is a great player, on a high powered team. He may be on the cusp of becoming over rated. Great player, yes. In a league of his own, not even close.