Who can challenge Makar and Hughes for the Norris?

With a new NHL season officially underway, it’s never too early to start thinking about contenders for the league’s major awards, and that includes the Norris Trophy recognizing the league’s top defenseman.

Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks are firmly entrenched as the two leading candidates every year until proven otherwise, but there are a whole host of other elite blue liners around the NHL who are a leap in offensive production away from putting themselves in that picture the way Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets did last year.

On Tuesday’s episode of  Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why players like Buffalo Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin could be a prime candidate to make that jump, even if Makar and Hughes stand as clear favorites.

Tyler Yaremchuk: With Dahlin, it’s an award for best defenseman, but you need a point total here to kind of grab the attention of voters. He had 68 points in 73 games last year. Again, you need a bit of a narrative push as well a lot of the time. It’s going to take Buffalo being better. He’s not in the conversation as a winner unless Buffalo is much closer to the playoffs this year.

Carter Hutton: The other thing that goes with sometimes awards is that you need to be on a star-studded cast, too. With Cale Makar, not that he isn’t a superstar, the fact is Colorado’s still going to push to be a contender this year. They’re going to put up a lot of points. If Buffalo is in the equation and they have a really big start, maybe he’s there. But for me, it’s Cale Makar’s award to win. That’s for sure.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…