|
Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas on Wednesday night. Doughty's first Norris victory ended a lively three-man race that forced voters to decide between pure offensive production and analytical superiority. Doughty, the two-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, beat out Erik Karlsson of Ottawa and Brent Burns of San Jose. While Doughty didn't match his competitors' offensive production, voters recognized his two-way prowess for the defense-minded Kings. "To my teammates, without you, I couldn't have done it," Doughty said. "You guys are everything to me, and we're brothers for life." Doughty led all defensemen in Corsi percentage at 58.9, and he scored 51 points with a plus-24 rating while playing enormous minutes on the Kings' depleted blue line. Karlsson, who won the Norris last year, scored a whopping 82 points for the Senators, the most by an NHL defenseman in 20 years. He also played nearly 29 minutes per game, but finished with a minus-2 on a non-playoff team. Burns nearly matched Karlsson with 75 points, including 27 goals for the Western Conference champion Sharks.
|
