Josi has played very well this season, but he has turned his game up to a whole new level in the second half.
Josi has played very well this season, but he has turned his game up to a whole new level in the second half.
There are a lot of very good defensemen this season, so it makes it tough to not only get into the Norris Trophy conversation, but to be a finalist. Recently, 14 NHL writers cast their vote to see where the top defensemen stand at this point in the season, and Roman Josi ranked fourth.
This is a 33-year-old who is nearly leading his team in points, but we know he can do it as Josi almost reached 100 in 2021-22. According to Hockey Reference, the veteran has 6.3 offensive point shares this season, the second-highest in his career. Even with 67 points in 68 games while dominating in all aspects of the game, it is tough to see him win it over the favourites in Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar.
Josi already has a Norris Trophy, but he very much deserves to be a finalist. As Hughes and Makar hold commanding leads in votes over the rest of the field, Josi is creeping up on Noah Dobson, who NHL.com has as a bit higher. recent play by Josi should definitely push him a lot closer every game as he just had a two-goal game to help lead the Nashville Predator to another victory.
Josi has two goals and five points in his last three games, six goals and 15 points in his last 11 games, and 10 goals and 39 points in his last 32 games. He is as hot as anyone on the back-end right now, and because of his defensive game on top of it, this is the reason why the Predators' captain is once again right in the mix as the best defenseman in the NHL. At his age competing with three young defensemen like he is, that is very impressive. The way Nashville has been rolling, I wouldn't doubt that he can come close to the 90-point mark this season.
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