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Originally Posted by 1qqaaz
Good point. Defensive forwards also have it tough.
Although Crosby still seems to be relevant for Hart and Lindsey voting, despite not putting up big numbers anymore. I guess you could argue that's largely based on reputation or some other factors.
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What are you talking about? Sidney Crosby was #10 in League scoring this last season, has been scoring at a 1.20 pts/GP pace for the last three years, and has never in his 15-year-career come all that close to dropping below the 1.00 pts/GP threshold. By any measure a 34-year-old Sidney Crosby is STILL a tremendous offensive player.
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I am skeptical of something like this being pulled off, so I guess that's where we differ.
GMs seem to be more aware of who are good defensive players actually are. They are often picked for national teams and get real minutes.
Perhaps if the GMs/coaches voted instead of the writers, we'd see some change.
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This has not really been a problem until the last decade or so, and even then, since Nik Lidstrom's last Norris win in 2011 the trophy has been won by Drew Doughty (2016: #10 in defensemen scoring) and Viktor Hedman (2018: #5). Last year Roman Josi won on the strength of a 65-point season placing him second in scoring among defensemen, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to argue that he is not easily among the very best all-round blue liners in the entire League. Before his win, Mark Giordano edged out Brent Burns for the trophy despite the fact that Burns was only the second defenseman since 1996 to score 82-points in a season.
Again, I don't think this is a serious problem at all. The selectors are prioritizing scoring numbers on their ballots, but they rarely have been getting it wrong. That is to say that even in the present era the winner of the Norris trophy has pretty consistently been among the best all-round defensemen in the world.