The NHL announced its three finalists for the James Norris Memorial Trophy today, with Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski being named one of those candidates.
This comes as a surprise to nobody.
Zach led the Blue Jackets in scoring for the second year in a row, posting 22 goals and 81 points in 75 games played. He added 18 penalty minutes and a +7 rating, while playing the second most average minutes in the league (26:37).
Reminder: he is a defenseman. Of course, he has to be a defenseman to be considered for this award. The Norris is handed out annually to the player determined to be the best all-around player at the position, and is voted for by the PHWA.
Joining Zach this year is last year's reining winner, Colorado's Cale Makar. He finished two points behind Werenski (20-59-79 in 75gp), adding 24 penalty minutes and a +32 rating.
The other finalist is Buffalo's Rasmus Dahlin, who had 74 points (19 goals) in 77 games played; along with 76 penalty minutes and a +18 rating. Both Dahlin and Makar are very deserving finalists, and it feels like this award could go in any direction.
But, there is an obvious snub this year: Edmonton's Evan Bouchard, who led all blue liners in scoring with 21 goals and 95 points, which was good for 11th-best in the entire NHL.
Zach could have ran away with this award.
If not for a sluggish end to his season, this trophy was Zach Werenski's in a run away. Heading into the Olympic break, he was the obvious front-runner. At that time, he already had 20 goals to lead all defensemen, and his 62 points were just one behind Bouchard for the lead in overall scoring.
He was tied for 15th in the entire league in scoring before heading to Milan, where he starred for team USA and set up the goal that won his country gold. Unfortunately, that's precisely where his season peaked.
After coming back from the Olympics, he scored just 19 points in his final 23 games down the stretch-including only 2 goals. As the Blue Jackets sputtered, so did #8, and vice-versa.
Still, his season as a whole is pretty hard to overlook. He led the Blue Jackets in scoring by 14 points, whereas Dahlin and Makar finished second and third on their teams, respectively.
Had the Blue Jackets made the playoffs, I think this still becomes a run-away for Zach Werenski. But they did not, so this could go to any of these three. Any of them-or even Bouchard-would be deserving.
Fingers cross that Zach did enough through the first three quarters of the year to lock this thing down. It would be nice to see a major award come to Columbus.
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