Three NHL Dark Horse Candidates For The 2026-27 Norris Trophy

The Hockey News is putting together a short series breaking down some of the top candidates for the NHL's major awards for the 2026-27 season. Today's focus is on the Norris Trophy.

Most years, the list of finalists for the Norris — given annually to the league's best defenseman — have come down to Cale Makar and two other guys in some order.

More often than not, at least one of Quinn Hughes and Zach Werenski are in the mix as well. That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for someone else to work their way into that conversation.

There's always at least one or two guys you might not expect, so who's most likely to surprise us and join the NHL's elite blueliners on this list?

Here are a few ideas:

Hedman was limited by injury and played just 33 games last season. Even after returning, he wasn't close to the same player we've come to expect. Part of the problem, he said, were mental-health struggles related to a lack of confidence in his game.

But he's also said more recently that he feels like he's back where he wants to be, both mentally and physically.

If that's the case, and the Lightning are in a position to contend at the top of the Eastern Conference once again, then there's a real chance Hedman turns back into the kind of defenseman who finished top-seven in Norris voting every year but one from 2016-2025.

The obvious caveat to all of this is that Hedman missed a lot of time. At 36, it's not often that guys sit out almost 50 games one season and then come back looking five years younger the next.

It feels like, because of the role he played at the Olympics, Slavin might have gotten some Norris love last season. But he missed almost as many games as Hedman, and the number of seasons in which low-scoring defensemen were seriously in the running for the Norris doesn't even require a full hand's worth of fingers.

That said, the kind of guy who can be the axis of a gold medal- and Stanley Cup-winning defense could get some attention from the same voters who believe there should be an award for best defensive-defenseman, too.

Slavin has received at least some Norris votes for every season of his career except his rookie campaign and last year (the latter, again, due to injury). Most of those put him in the teens, but twice he's peaked in the high single digits: 2022 and 2025.

As long as Slavin can stay in the lineup and Carolina has the kind of regular season everyone expects they will for a Stanley Cup defense, Slavin is likely to be their best awards contender. Maybe you'd like to see him get up around 40 points for the first time in a while, but voters will talk themselves into it regardless.

Here's yet another great defenseman who missed significant time (27 games) and produced quite well, but perhaps not as much as he did in the past.

Fox's problem, as much as the injury, was one of perception. The fact that he was mediocre at the 4 Nations Face-Off and then the Rangers struggled last year soured a lot of people on him. He still finished 14th in Norris voting, having received one fifth-place vote from a writer in Ohio.

It's not impossible to see a world where the Rangers make the playoffs this season, as they did go out and get some difference-making players.If Fox is healthy and contributing at his usual high level for something close to the full 84-game season, the idea that he'd be in the running for this award is totally reasonable.

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