Edmonton Oilers star defenceman Evan Bouchard has had an amazing year scoring over 90 points with a plus/minus rating of plus 22 and 10 points ahead of second place, Zach Werenski (for almost half of the year). He has been paired well with Mattias Ekholm this year and has fed amazing passes to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Her has career statistics for points, goals and assists. Yet, he is not favoured to win the Norris Trophy for the best defenseman in the league!
Previous Winners of the Norris Trophy
A James Norris Trophy candidate is defined a National Hockey League defenseman deemed to have demonstrated the greatest "all-round ability" at the position throughout the regular season. James Norris was a businessman and owner of the Detroit Red Wings that saw them win 5 Stanley Cups in his time as owner.
This trophy was initiated in 1953 in his memory and won by Red Kelly of the Detroit Red Wings in 1954. This trophy has been given to many great players in the past to include Bobby Orr (eight consecutive times from 1968-75 as part of the Boston Bruins), Nicklas Lidstrom (seven times from 2001-2008 as part of the Detroit Red Wings), Ray Bourque (five times from 1987-94 as part of the Boston Bruins), Doug Harvey (seven times from 1955-1962 as part of the Montreal Canadians), Cale Makar (two times and recently in 2025) and Paul Coffey (three times from 1985-1995 but the one of two defenseman to win it with on two teams, Edmonton Oilers and Detroit Red Wings). Chris Chelios also won it 3 times from 1989-96 as part of two teams, The Montreal Canadians and Chicago Blackhawks.
In the past 10 years, it has been won by nine different players with Cale Makar winning it a second time and, interestingly, won by a Western Conference defenseman seven times in the past 10 years. It is a hard trophy to in win with the speed of the game and quality of goaltending.
Candidates for the Norris Trophy in 2025-2026 NHL Season
There are a number of great candidates this year for the Norris Trophy. The name that most pick to win is Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets who is second in scoring by a defenseman. He is a great two way defenseman, as they are all are, but he leads the Blue Jackets in scoring for most of the year with a plus 8 rating.
As such, he has carried that team for most of the year and almost got them into the playoffs this year. He has had only 29 playoff games in the past 10 years he has been in the league, mainly because he is on a team that has a lot of potential but have failed to make the playoffs during his tenure so far. He has matched his points from last year and is an integral part of the Columbus Blue Jackets as they try to building a competitive team for the playoffs.
Third in scoring this year is the young skater in Lane Hutson with 78 points, third in scoring on the Canadians. This is only his third year but has shown how offensive he is with 66 points last year and more this year. He has a +37 rating and is a big part of why the Canadians are in the playoffs.
Rounding out the top 5 is Quinn Hughes (the 2024 winner) and Makar (the 2025 and 2022 winner).  These two have had good years with Hughes changing teams from Vancouver to Minnesota for the better. Both will be key to their team’s success in the playoffs.
The Career Year of Evan Bouchard
Bouchard’s 91 points is the third highest by a defenseman in the past 10 years next to Erik Karlsson with 101 points and Roman Josi with 96 points. Contrary to many, Bouchard has been pretty responsible this year with a plus 22 rating, almost as good as his plus 34 in 2023-24 season.  Unlike Werenski, Bouchard has played 75 playoff games in the past four years while Hughes has played 30 and Makar 79 in seven years. He has always taken his game to a new level in the playoffs with 32 points in the 2023-24 playoffs compared to Makar’s 29 in 2021-22.
Offensively, he has excelled both in the regular season and playoffs in the past two years. His defensive play has improved this year but has made mistakes of giveaways often in his zone. Werenski and Makar are no different having also made mistakes resulting in goals against them. Bouchard’s Bouch bombs are well known and, again this year, he has one of the hardest shots in the league at 98. 83 mph for second place next to #1 hardest shot from former Oiler, Viktor Arvidsson at 98.96 according to NHL Edge Stats.
In fact, NHL Edge Stats says that 10 of the top 10 hardest shots this year have been from an Oiler or former Oiler player with Bouchard having recorded 4 of the top 10 hardest shot this year.  His offensive zone time has been consistent at 47.5% this year and 49.1% and 50.1% in the past two years and always in the top 5 while Werenski’s offensive zone percent is not even in the top 10.
Thus, Bouchard has several statistics that are better than Werenski and has led in in points and assists since the Olympic break. Bouchard should be the top runner for the Norris Trophy because of these statistics and the fact that the Oilers are headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs again while Werenski could not get his team into the playoffs again.
Bouchard is a Key Part of The Possible Success of the Oilers in The Playoffs
Many of the sports writer’s sites have lower odds on Bouchard winning the Norris Trophy than Werenski and most have Bouchard in third or 4th place in the running. It is very surprising to me that this is the case as he deserves to win in the trophy as it has been won by many high scoring defensemen like Paul Coffey, Bobby Orr, Cale Makar and Denis Potvin.
Maybe he wins, maybe he does not this year but one thing we know for certain that he will up his game once next week arrives and be a very important part of the Oilers push towards a third chance to play in the Stanely Cup finals in June. Oilers fans are in for another ride and we are eager to watch Bouchard and Co. again and anxiously waiting for Friday to arrive when we will know our opponent in the first round on the Stanley Cup playoffs. Â
There are multiple possibilities, It might be those peksy Kings, or the Mighty Ducks or, if we are lucky, the Utah Mammoth. Whomever we play, the Oilers are playing at almost their potential in the last 10 games with very good defensive play, quality goaltending and McDavid with a purpose.
We all hope that Draisaitl and Zach Hyman will be back to play for the first round as well as Jason Dickinson and Max Jones. We need them all for the road ahead and hope that this team will play with grit and fire and bring the cup home.
Add us as a preferred source on Google