It's Keith's to lose, imo.

Keith for sure.

I am tossed up between Keith and Doughty... I think its just because I like watching doughty play (especially some of the games this playoffs). But Keith has more points, and is pretty great too. So which ever!

Drew Mother ****ing Doughty!

This. Definitely this. Sooooo this. THIS

It'll be Keith.

How can you pick anyone else this season?

Where is Nik Lidstrom?? lol

Duncan Kieth gets my vote

Here is a run-down of some of the important stats:
-----------Goals - Assists - Points - Hits - Blocked shots - Takeaways - Giveaways - even strength ToI - Powerplay - Shorthanded
Green: ----19------57--------76-----133--------105-------------44-------------73------------18:15-------------5:03-----------2:09
Doughty: --16------43-------59------157--------76--------------20-------------73-------------18:32------------4:25------------2:01
Keith: -----14------55--------69------46--------143-------------45--------------59-------------20:48------------2:48-----------2:58

Green has definately improved his defensive play over the past season and I do believe he deserves the nomination this year, where I did not believe he deserved it last year. He has developed into a fairly competent defender over the past season. But I can't pick a merely competent defender to be the best all-round defenseman in the entire NHL, regardless of how good he is offensively.

Doughty has had a great season and undoubtably he will win his share of Norris trophies in the future but, to me, his takeaway/giveaway ratio leaves something to be desired and tells me his still has a ways to go. Also, his large number of giveaways combined with the fact that 31 of his 59 points came on the powerplay leads me to believe that he is not as great of a puck-moving defenseman as some may think. Also, from watching him play, I loved him in a shut-down role against opposing team's top lines, but here is my quarrel with him in that regard. Most top offensive players/lines tend to shunt their defensive duties to try to score goals and create offense, truly great defenders like Pronger, Neidermayer, Lidstrom and Keith know how to not only shut down those players, but use that as an opportunity to turn pucks over and create offense going back the other way. Doughty hasn't mastered this yet but I think when he does so as well as cuts down on his turnovers he will score 70+ points in a season and win a ton of Norris trophies but...

As far as this season goes it HAS to be Duncan Keith. A 26 year old defenseman just hitting his prime, he does everything well. He plays all the tough minutes, the second most even-strength minutes in the league. He plays more shorthanded minutes than the other two and he plays the tough shorthanded minutes. On Washington, Poti and Schultz are the first guys out on the penalty-kill playing against the other team's top players, for LA its Scuderi, O'Donnell and Greene. Mike Green and Drew Doughty come out against the other teams secondary powerplay units or the slightly fatigued top units. With Chicago Keith and Seabrook are always the first guys out on the PK. The one criticism one might have against Keith is he doesn't play as much on the powerplay but the truth is, thats just because Chicago doesn't need him out there. Chicago typically uses a four forward powerplay configuration and Brian Campbell is often the lone defenseman. He doesn't throw a lot of hits but he is astounding positionally and one of the best in the NHL in one-on-ones. So there you go, Duncan Keith for Norris please.

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Erik Karlsson yo!

I knew you would say that!!!


Lindstrom, Chara, ...etc. all had not very impressive season. Where is Weber though?

Anyways No Doughty for sure (sadly), no Green (although he could be), so who is left???

Keith it is. Has a great point total, quite a lot of hits, ...etc. He is the man.

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Thanks to SD, AK-84, Vesal Audi, Jakim, and BSF. People who made my sigs!

I can't help but wonder what Weber can achieve with some decent forwards ahead of him. All they have is Hornqvist making a huge impact.

I mean...51 points is their highest..LOOOL! And they are giving Chicago their money's worth!

Also those 51 points were by Hornqvist in lesser games than Sullivan. Horn is also a rookie!

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Hornqvist is a beast. 30 goals is a HUGE effort on a team like Nashville.

Wasn't he picked like 2nd last out of everyone in his draft class?

He was picked last according to Hockeydb. I love the way he plays. He's a Holmstrom type of scorer. He won't get many pretty goals, they'll all be garbage goals.

Don't worry MTA, we got a fan favourite with our 1st round pick that year - Brian Lee!

Green?

You're kidding, right?

Not really. He's a nominee for a reason, and like you said, he proved that he isn't a one-dimensional player or a liability on the backend.

Well I'd be shocked if he won.

I don't understand how anyone can pick someone other than Keith with the season he's had.

Agreed. You have to think about it in the sense that, 20, 30, 50 years from now people are gonna look back at these award winners, and do we honestly want people thinking that Mike Green was the best defenseman in the league? They can look at his scoring numbers and see how great he was offensivel Hey, who knows, maybe he will be a great all-round defenseman someday but hes just not right now. Great offensively + OK defensively does not equal great all-round. Sorry Josh.

The biggest reason I can see voters picking Doughty is because they think Doughty is going to be so great he will win 5, 6 or 7 Norris' throughout his career and go donw in history as one of the greatest defenseman of all time and they want to be able to say they voted for him when he won his first Norris when he was only 20.

But honestly, we're not voting on potential, we're voting on who was the best defenseman this year. And it was Duncan Keith.

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Is Keith really better than Green defensively, or do they play different styles in different systems? Because Green had 3 times as many hits as Keith did, in seven fewer games, and was +18 higher.