Making the case: James Norris Memorial Trophy

The James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the "defense player" (they should really update the language) who "demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position."

The Norris Trophy is named after longtime Detroit Red Wings owner James E. Norris and was first awarded in 1954. Bruins great Bobby Orr once won the award for an NHL record eight consecutive seasons, while Doug Harvey and Nicklas Lidstrom each won the award on seven occasions. 

Now that the finalists have been named, let's look at the relative strengths and weaknesses of each nominee's candidacy.

Let's start with a Player Usage Chart that gives us a cursory glimpse at how the three nominees were utilized by their head coaches this season. Shea Weber carried the most difficult minutes, territorial, and matchups burden on an often overmatched Nashville Predators team. Perhaps consequently, his results (at least by the shot based metrics) were also far and away the worst among the three nominees:

[Courtesy hockeyabstract.com]

Shea Weber

Once the Nashville Predators traded Kevin Klein to New York for Michael Del Zotto, Shea Weber became basically the only battle hardened veteran on a very raw, very young Predators blue-line. 

Weber logged insane minutes for the Predators this season, finishing fourth in the NHL in total ice-time and in total ice-time per game. Despite playing on a poor team and dealing with some of the toughest minutes imaginable, Weber managed to come out nearly even and led all NHL defenseman with 23 goals. 

Weber's 23 goals were the most by a defender in five years, and he did it while actually playing as a defenseman on the power-play (unlike some Zdeno Chara's we can think of).

Working against Shea Weber's Norris candidacy are the forces of history. Were Weber to win the Norris, he'd become the first defenseman who played for a non-playoff team to take home the award. Meanwhile the other Norris nominees play for stacked teams; legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. That probably counts for something.

Zdeno Chara

Zdeno Chara eats tough competition for breakfast, and forms the most imposing defensive triumvirate in hockey (along with teammates Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask). In addition to scoring 17 goals and notching 40 points, Chara played the most minutes of any defenseman on the second best defensive team in hockey.

Here's a good one: what do Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Claude Giroux have in common, aside from being really, really good at hockey? The answer: none of them were on the ice for an even-strength goal scored in the nearly 140 even-strength minutes in which those elite players were matched up against Chara this season. That's pretty much all you need to know about Chara's Norris candidacy.

Duncan Keith

Duncan Keith finished second among all NHL defenders in points and led the Chicago Blackhawks, still probably the best team in the league, in minutes played this season. Keith regularly battled the opposition's top players, and still the Blackhawks outscored opponents by 18 goals with Keith on the ice at even-strength and controlled 56.6% of all shot attempts. 

Keith is the nitrous that slams Chicago's offensive game into overdrive, and he's got the points argument going for him over both Chara and Weber. On the other hand, Keith's teammate Niklas Hjalmarsson emerged as Joel Quenneville's most heavily utilized penalty-killing defenseman, and often handled the heavier defensive zone-start and top-line matchup burden.