Norris Trophy Nominees: Pittsburgh Penguins D Kris Letang Enters Conversation

Norris Trophy Nominees: Pittsburgh Penguins D Kris Letang Enters Conversation Alongside Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty, and Brent Burns

This year’s parity among potential NHL Award candidates is vast for nearly every piece of hardware. Determining the Norris Trophy nominees for the league’s top defensemen is becoming increasingly difficult over the final month of the season.

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Largely thought to be a two-horse race around the mid-point of the 2015-16 season, Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson and Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty were the standouts. Coming on strong in the second half is San Jose’s Brent Burns and Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang.

There’s a strong case to be made for Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns when you consider their off the chart production. Karlsson leads all d-men with 81 points (going into Saturday), while Burns leads all blueliners with 27 goals (heading into Saturday). Unfortunately, both players boast a minus rating, Karlsson -4, Burns -5.

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Since the NHL began keeping track of plus/minus back in 1967-68, only three of 47 (3/47) have claimed the Norris with a minus rating.

The last to do it was Nicklas Lidstrom in 2010-11, which lets be honest, options were poor that year and it was almost a going away present for the league’s best d-man in the past two decades. Before Lidstrom, Rob Blake won the honors back in 1997-98 with 50 points and a -3 for the LA Kings. Next we go all the way back to 1980-81 when Randy Carlyle won the award playing for Pittsburgh with 83 points and a horrendous -16.

Can Erik Karlsson or Brent Burns defy the odds to capture the Norris Trophy in 2015-16?

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Kris Letang Deserves Serious Consideration

Much like his teammate Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang has come on strong as the season progressed. It was a slow-start out of the gates for Pittsburgh as they were flirting with the Draft Lottery for a long time. The Pens were particularly struggling on the back-end until they acquired Trevor Daley from Chicago. Once they added Derrick Pouliot and Justin Schultz to the mix, the team began to soar and have arguably been the NHL’s hottest team since the All-Star break.

Facing adversity through injuries (Evgeni Malkin, Olli Maatta, and more recently Marc-Andre Fleury), the Penguins seem unstoppable. Sidney Crosby is on fire, making his way into the Hart Trophy conversation. Credit is also due to Phil Kessel who finally decided to show up post All-Star break. But the one name that almost deserves more credit than both star forwards is Kris Letang.

Sitting out the final game against Philadelphia, Letang will finish 2015-16 with 16 goals, 51 assists (67 points) – making it a single-season career-high. He also finishes the campaign with a plus-9 (+9) rating. Kris Letang only suited up for 71 games, but that should be considered a healthy season for the injury-prone defender.

A lot of Pittsburgh’s offense begins at the back-end with Kris Letang. Whether it’s a strong first pass, a stretch pass, or carried out of the zone himself, the Pens star defender generally makes good decisions when the puck is on his stick. Here’s a guy that logged just under four minutes/game worth of powerplay (PP) ice-time, and 2:19/game of shorthanded (SH) ice-time, which shows his versatility on both sides of the puck.

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Kris Letang is often thought of as an offensive juggernaut from the back-end. And, it’s true he can basically be penciled in as a top five blueline point producer if healthy – but commonly overlooked are his defensive abilities.

How else do you explain a mediocre defensive group (at best) emerging into one the NHL’s hottest teams down the stretch? This team has tightened things up defensively, and continue to find ways to create more scoring chances.

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So, while the spotlight continues to shine on Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and the other forwards who continue to step up in the absence of big names, Kris Letang arguably deserves more credit than any player on this entire team for Pittsburgh’s remarkable turn-around.

With legitimate arguments to be made for several blueliners as Norris Trophy nominees, it should make for great debate leading up to the NHL Awards show sometime in June presumably.

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