{"id":487947,"date":"2026-04-18T08:29:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=487947"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:31:59","slug":"end-of-season-nhl-award-candidates-norris-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/04\/18\/end-of-season-nhl-award-candidates-norris-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"End of Season NHL Award Candidates: Norris Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0<\/span>Last Word On Hockey\u2019s<\/em> 2025-26 end-of-season NHL award candidates. In this installment, we will look at who the top candidates are for the Norris Trophy. We have already discussed our Vezina Trophy candidates<\/a>, and our next installment will focus on the Hart Trophy<\/a>. Without delay, let us now take a look at our finalists for the Norris.<\/span><\/p>\n

2025-26 Norris Trophy Candidates<\/h2>\n

In our\u00a0<\/span>mid-season Norris Trophy candidates<\/a>\u00a0list, Cale Makar<\/a>, Zach Werenski<\/a>, and Quinn Hughes<\/a> <\/span>were the finalists. All three of these defencemen have had excellent seasons. Will Makar run away with the vote like he did last year? Could a surprise entry break up the three-headed monster of Makar, Werenski, and Hughes? All statistics are accurate as of the end of the 2025-26 NHL regular season.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Zach Werenski<\/a>, Columbus Blue Jackets<\/h3>\n

Had the Blue Jackets made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Werenski might have been the clear winner of the Norris. Although he is the odds-on favourite to win the Norris as of right now, we believe this will be a toss-up between him and Cale Makar<\/a>. In NHL.com’s trophy tracker series<\/a>, the latest poll had Werenski finishing above Makar, with 75% of the total first-place votes going to him. He is third in goals among defencemen with 22 on the season, just behind Matthew Schaefer<\/a>, the likely 2026 Calder Trophy winner, and Jakob Chychrun<\/a>. He was nominated as a Norris finalist for the first time in his career in 2025.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Credit Image: \u00a9 Mickael Chavet\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Cale Makar<\/a>, Colorado Avalanche<\/h3>\n

Although Makar could still be the favourite for this year’s Norris Trophy, he has slowed down since the turn of the new year. Makar has recorded 33 points in 35 games in 2026, which is only 12th in scoring among defencemen. He also missed seven games due to an upper-body injury<\/a> and returned on Tuesday against the Calgary Flames. Despite this, he is almost assured to be a Norris finalist due to his pedigree and experience. Odds may tell you he could actually end up not being a finalist, but we believe a household name like Makar will always have the benefit of the doubt. He has been a Norris finalist for five consecutive seasons and has won in two of those years.<\/p>\n

3. Evan Bouchard<\/a>, Edmonton Oilers<\/h3>\n

While we believe that Werenski and Makar are locks for a finalist spot, this third spot was a challenging one to put down. We will get to the honourable mentions after this, which will shout out many other fantastic defenders with a chance at winning the Norris this year. From a points perspective, Bouchard has blown other defencemen out of the water, with 58 points in 41 games in 2026. Although he is notorious for being a high-risk, high-reward defenceman, he is a big reason why the Edmonton Oilers were able to solidify a playoff spot after months of mediocre play. His play down the stretch, especially with Leon Draisaitl<\/a> out of the lineup<\/a>, has been admirable.<\/p>\n

Honourable Mentions for Norris Finalists<\/h3>\n

If we went over every honourable mention out there, we would be here for days. Thus, we have picked players who could officially end up on the official finalist list for the Norris. Our top honourable mention is Quinn Hughes<\/a> of the Minnesota Wild. The main reason why he would get left off the finalist list would be his stint with the Vancouver Canucks, which ended in a bit of an ugly breakup. Although he has had a very solid run with the Minnesota Wild and leads the league in primary assists with 33, as a whole, his season has not been a perfect one.<\/p>\n

Rasmus Dahlin<\/a> is Elliotte Friedman<\/a>‘s pick for the Norris, but could he be a dark horse to win it all? The Buffalo Sabres have been perhaps the biggest success story of the season, as they broke a 15-year drought of not making the playoffs. Dahlin was an instrumental part of that. In 42 games since the new year, he has recorded the second-most points among defencemen, with 46 points. It has been a tumultuous season for Dahlin as he had to take time off to spend time with his fianc\u00e9e, who had to undergo an emergency heart transplant. To go through that and still lead Buffalo’s charge to the postseason is an impressive feat.<\/p>\n

Aspiring Young Defenders Could Rule the NHL’s Future<\/h3>\n

While other fantastic defenders, such as Moritz Seider<\/a> or Lane Hutson<\/a>, could have an outside chance of being an official finalist, our list will stop here. To wrap things up, we also wanted to highlight some less-experienced or young defencemen who have had great seasons. Matthew Schaefer<\/a> will certainly win the Calder Trophy, and could also get a few votes for the Norris. He almost singlehandedly made Islanders hockey the talk of the town, with his 23 goals on the season, which was second-best in the league among defensemen. Jake Sanderson<\/a> has been another young defender who has stepped up after the Senators’ workhorse, Thomas Chabot<\/a>, was injured late in the season.<\/a><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Last Word On Hockey\u2019s 2025-26 end-of-season NHL award candidates. In this installment, we will look at who the top candidates are for the Norris Trophy. We have already discussed our Vezina Trophy candidates, and our next installment will focus on the Hart Trophy. Without delay, let us now take a look at our finalists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":441654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,28,23,4547,4548],"tags":[1515,2720,6216,528],"class_list":["post-487947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-avalanche","category-oilers","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-cale-makar","tag-evan-bouchard","tag-james-norris-memorial-trophy","tag-zach-werenski"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487947"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488578,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487947\/revisions\/488578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}