The Contrarian – No Norris for Giordano
Thomas Drance
2014-12-14
The Contrarian douses some cold water on Mark Giordano’s Norris candidacy…
Steven Simmons of the Toronto Sun wrote a story earlier this week about Mark Giordano and his chances of winning the Norris trophy.
His article, titled "Giordano takes the long road to stardom", outlines the surprise rise of the Calgary Flames defenseman this year after being undrafted in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
As of the end of December 11th, 2014, Girodano sits in sixth place with 30 points in 30 games amongst all players. That is all players, not just defensemen.
The closest defensemen are Brent Burns and Kevin Shattenkirk who each have earned 24 points so far. The next best defender is Giordano's teammate TJ Brodie with 22 points. Based on that Simmons indicates that "[he's] the leading candidate to win the Norris Trophy."
In addition to the stat line, he writes the feel good 'rags to riches' story about Giordano. Undrafted by anyone, not even a Junior team, and likely to never realize his dream to play in the NHL until then Owen Sound GM Mike Futa told him that he could start playing in the Ontario Hockey League even at 19 years of age.
That was the first domino to fall and there were others that eventually led Giordano to sign with Calgary.
As an added bonus, Simmons, places a few jabs at the Toronto Maple Leafs by comparing Giordano to Carlo Colaiacovo who was their first round selection that summer.
Well it reads for a nice story but simply because he leads all defensemen in points at this point in the season doesn't mean he's going to win the Norris. In fact, it doesn't mean anything.
As you can imagine, the first argument is simply stating that he had a great start to the season and is he going to be able to maintain it? Probably not but it is possible but even if he does end up being the leading defender in points that doesn't guarantee anything.
Looking at past Norris winners we have the following:
| Year | Player | Age | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | DUNCAN KEITH | 31 | 2nd |
| 2013 | P.K. SUBBAN | 24 | T-1st |
| 2012 | ERIK KARLSSON | 22 | 1st |
| 2011 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 41 | 2nd |
| 2010 | DUNCAN KEITH | 27 | 2nd |
| 2009 | ZDENO CHARA | 32 | T-12th |
| 2008 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 38 | 1st |
| 2007 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 37 | 5th |
| 2006 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 36 | 1st |
| 2004 | SCOTT NIEDERMAYER | 31 | T-2nd |
| 2003 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 33 | 3rd |
| 2002 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 32 | T-1st |
| 2001 | NICKLAS LIDSTROM | 31 | 2nd |
| 2000 | CHRIS PRONGER | 26 | 2nd |
| 1999 | AL MACINNIS | 36 | 1st |
| 1998 | ROB BLAKE | 29 | T-8th |
| 1997 | BRIAN LEETCH | 29 | 1st |
| 1996 | CHRIS CHELIOS | 34 | 4th |
| 1995 | PAUL COFFEY | 34 | 1st |
| 1994 | RAY BOURQUE | 34 | 1st |
| 1993 | CHRIS CHELIOS | 31 | 9th |
| 1992 | BRIAN LEETCH | 24 | 1st |
| 1991 | RAY BOURQUE | 31 | 2nd |
| 1990 | RAY BOURQUE | 30 | 3rd |
Certainly, the defenseman that earned the most points does win but not as often as you would believe.
Secondly, I include their respective ages (I calculated it based on the year they were born and the year they won the award) to illustrate that very few win the award for the first time after the age of 30.
Sure MacInnis, Lidstrom and Niedermayer did just that but they also had many other years of great statistical and team success that simply fell short. They were not one year wonders.
You could even include Chara in that class even though he wasn't a point producing powerhouse he was competing against Lidstrom who dominated the award during his career.
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