Trophy Tracker: Norris

To mark the conclusion of the regular the season, NHL.com is running its fifth and final installment of the Trophy Tracker series this week. Today, we look at the race for the Norris Trophy, the annual award given to the top defensemen in the NHL as selected in a Professional Hockey Writers Association poll.

John Carlson was seven points from setting the Washington Capitals' single-season record for a defenseman before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

Though he won't get that chance with the NHL announcing a Return to Play Plan on May 26 that ended the regular season, he earlier said he's not too concerned about it.

"I'm just worried about playing at this point," Carlson said April 8. "I think all I'm thinking about right now is trying to keep myself in the best shape that I can with the circumstances. Whatever the rest of the season holds, I'll worry about that when I lace up the skates again."

Carlson scored an NHL career-high 75 points (15 goals, 60 assists) in 69 games, six behind Larry Murphy's Capitals record of 81 in 1986-87. Carlson led NHL defensemen in points, 10 more than Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators.

A panel of 18 NHL.com writers selected Carlson to win the Norris Trophy for the first time. He received 80 points (11 first-place votes) to edge Josi, who was next with 77 points (six first-place votes). Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the Norris in 2017-18, was third (50 points) and received the other first-place vote.

Carlson has averaged 71 points the past three seasons since scoring 37 points (nine goals, 28 assists) in 72 games in 2016-17. He was plus-12 and scored 26 power-play points and six game-winning goals this season, and led Washington with 108 blocked shots in 24:38 of ice time per game.

It's why teammate Alex Ovechkin referred to him as "John Norris" early in the season and the Capitals started the hashtag #Johnny4Norris.

"Everybody knew he's a skilled guy," Ovechkin said. "He's playing big minutes now like always and he's just feeling it, and it seems like everything he's tried to do, it works, and that's good for us."

Washington (41-20-8, .652 points percentage) won the Metropolitan Division and will play in a Seeding Round Robin among the top four teams in the Eastern Conference to determine seeds for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Carlson could become the first Capitals player to win the Norris since Rod Langway in the second of back-to-back seasons in 1983-84.

"He's just continually gotten better every year," Capitals coach Todd Reirden said of the 30-year-old. "I think that's a credit to him kind of having a game plan every year going into it, having a plan in the summer of how to continue to improve and continue to get better in different areas. Obviously, his offensive numbers this year are remarkable, and we're going to need to continue to get that push from the back end to generate some more offense, and he's an important part of that."

Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis:John Carlson, Capitals, 80 points (11 first-place votes); Roman Josi, Predators, 77 points (six first-place votes); Victor Hedman, Lightning, 50 points (one first-place vote); Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues, 28 points; Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche, 9 points; Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes, 8 points; Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks, 6 points; Seth Jones, Columbus Blue Jackets, 4 points; Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins, 4 points; Miro Heiskanen, Dallas Stars, 2 points; Zach Werenski, Blue Jackets, 2 points