How many times will Hedman by nominated for the Norris before he retires?

[flipp]

Hedman has five straight nominations for the Norris and is on pace for one more this year. How many nominations do you think he will achieve before he retires?

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[Hockey Outsider]

If Hedman is a Norris finalist this year, he'll become only the 5th defensemen in NHL history to be a Norris trophy finalist six years in a row (the others are Bobby Orr - 9x; Ray Bourque - 7x; and Nicklas Lidstrom and Pierre Pilote - 6x).

 

[John Johnson]

Crazy how he's already one the best Dmen of all time.

 

[majormajor]

Too many times. I say that acknowledging that he's the best D of our era, but when you're the best D of your era you're going to get Norris noms even when you shouldn't, like last year. He played through a bad injury in the last two months of the regular season and was a total liability for the Bolts.

 

[jetsforever]

Crazy how he's already one the best Dmen of all time.

Is he though?

 

[John Johnson]

Is he though?

Being nominated as many times as he has for the Norris, in an exclusive club of 3 of the best defenders ever, definitely says something. He may only have 1 Norris right now but he also has 2 Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe, and he probably still has a good 5 years left in him at least.

 

[COHawk]

If Hedman is a Norris finalist this year, he'll become only the 5th defensemen in NHL history to be a Norris trophy finalist six years in a row (the others are Bobby Orr - 9x; Ray Bourque - 7x; and Nicklas Lidstrom and Pierre Pilote - 6x).

Impressive company. Main difference is how many they all won though. Hedman only has 1 so far:

Orr - 8 in a row
Lidstrom - 6 out of 7 years
Bourque - 4 out of 5 years (plus one more)
Pilote - 3 in a row

 

[The Macho King]

Impressive company. Main difference is how many they all won though. Hedman only has 1 so far:

Orr - 8 in a row
Lidstrom - 6 out of 7 years
Bourque - 4 out of 5 years (plus one more)
Pilote - 3 in a row

I don't think it's crazy to put Hedman over Pilote though. That was a weak era for Dmen and Pilote isn't exactly a "playoff performer".

 

[KUUUUCH]

Too many times. I say that acknowledging that he's the best D of our era, but when you're the best D of your era you're going to get Norris noms even when you shouldn't, like last year. He played through a bad injury in the last two months of the regular season and was a total liability for the Bolts.

Yeah he was such a liability in the 2021 playoffs

 

[TeamCanadaGoldChamps]

off topic but i had to google Pierre Pilote

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Too many times. I say that acknowledging that he's the best D of our era, but when you're the best D of your era you're going to get Norris noms even when you shouldn't, like last year. He played through a bad injury in the last two months of the regular season and was a total liability for the Bolts.

wish I could have a liability like that on my team, damn

 

[heretik27]

Seems like he's hit his peak at the right moment. The older guard fell off, and the younger talent is just beginning to make their push.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Seems like he's hit his peak at the right moment. The older guard fell off, and the younger talent is just beginning to make their push.

Very similar to Lidstrom.

 

[heretik27]

Very similar to Lidstrom.

In that aspect yeah. Lidstrom never fell below 6th in Norris voting for 16 straight years from age 25 on though. Hedman's got another 10 years to go at this level before the two are in the same conversation for career. With COVID and the shortened seasons apparently not going anywhere though, he might just be able to weather the aging process with less mileage.

 

[majormajor]

Yeah he was such a liability in the 2021 playoffs

The Norris is a regular season award. You shouldn't be nominated for it if you are dragging your team down for 40% of the season.

 

[T REX]

Too many times. I say that acknowledging that he's the best D of our era, but when you're the best D of your era you're going to get Norris noms even when you shouldn't, like last year. He played through a bad injury in the last two months of the regular season and was a total liability for the Bolts.

Wow...an injury? No way. To a hockey player? Weird.

That guy is an absolute stud on offense and defense. He's not just a points guy. He erases so many mistakes.

Too many? When he is healthy he is by far the best D man in the NHL. AINEC

 

[T REX]

The Norris is a regular season award. You shouldn't be nominated for it if you are dragging your team down for 40% of the season.

Two negative posts on Hedman.

Come clean buddy...the floor is yours

EDIT: You didn't even vote lolololol ...

 

[Hockey Outsider]

off topic but i had to google Pierre Pilote

Off topic, but some comments on Pierre Pilote...

When the NHL published its Top 100 players list in 2018, nearly everyone criticized the omission of Evgeni Malkin (and rightfully so). But Pierre Pilotte was probably the 2nd worst exclusion among post-WWII players.

He has a really strong resume. In addition to winning three straight Norris trophies, he finished top two six years in a row. He was an excellent playmaking defenseman and, relative to his era, he put up big numbers for a defenseman (keeping in mind this was before Bobby Orr helped redefine the position).

Pilote placed 6th or higher in Norris trophy voting 10 times. Only two players in all of NHL history (Ray Bourque and Nicklas Lidstrom) top that. (Doug Harvey matches this).

Pilote was on the smaller side, even for his era, but had a mean streak. He famously fought brothers Maurice and Henri Richard in the same game.

It's true that the 1960's Blackhawks were somewhat disappointing in the playoffs. But when they won the Stanley Cup in 1961, Pilote led the team in assists, points, plus/minus, and PP points. During the 1960's as a whole, Pilote was the highest-scoring defenseman in the playoffs (and scored more per-game than anyone who was anywhere close to him in games played).

Lest anyone think that Pilote was racking up points at the expense of defense - the Blackhawks were vastly better when he was on the ice. In the playoffs, Chicago outscored their opponent 1.10:1 (ie they scored 1.1 goals for each goal allowed) with Pilote, and were 0.73:1 when he wasn't on the ice (a 50% improvement). For context, that performance is roughly in line with Chris Pronger (52% improvement), Patrice Bergeron (50%), Henrik Zetterberg (49%) and Doug Gilmour (40%).

For what it's worth, the History forum ranked Pilote as the 14th greatest defenseman of all-time in the greatest defensemen project (which ran in 2011 - full disclosure, I was a participant).