Penguins Defensemen Have Solid Odds To Win Norris

The Pittsburgh Penguins have a couple of defenseman who have early odds to win the Norris Trophy.

In their 56 years of existence, only one Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman has ever won the James Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best blue liner.

Ironically, that one player isn’t even one of the top defenders in Penguins history like Paul Coffey, Sergei Gonchar, or Kris Letang, it was Randy Carlyle in 1981.

This past summer, new president and general manager Kyle Dubas brought the reigning Norris winner in Erik Karlsson to Pittsburgh as a boost for the lineup.

While the focus of Karlsson and the Penguins will be to win the Stanley Cup, it’s possible some extra hardware can be added.

Already a three-time winner of the Norris, Karlsson enters the 2023-24 season with decent odds to repeat as the best defenseman in the NHL.

Coming in at +1,600, Karlsson has the 7^th best odds behind only Cale Makar (+225), Adam Fox (+600), Rasmus Dahlin (+800), Quinn Hughes (+1,000), Miro Heiskanen (+1,100), and Charlie McAvoy (+1,400).

Considering the definition of the award is best defenseman in the NHL, there was some dispute over if Karlsson should win the Norris at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.

Karlsson finished the season with a minus-26 rating and the San Jose Sharks were among the worst teams in the league.

Putting up 101 points as a defenseman, however, overshadowed the poor defensive output and gave Karlsson the Norris Trophy by a pretty wide margin of voting.

Letang is also being given odds to take home his first Norris, but they don’t look pretty as he sits at +10,000.

Over his 17-year career, Letang has never won the Norris trophy, but finished in the top five of voting twice.

Letang finished the 2022-23 season as the Masterton Trophy winner and if he is able to continue his bounce back with a top notch season, why couldn't he finish near the top of Norris voting?

The odds may be long, but they aren’t impossible and an impressive season from either Karlsson or Letang could bring the second ever Norris Trophy to the Penguins organization.

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