Victor Hedman won the 2018 Norris Trophy, landing the trophy for the first time in his career and becoming the first Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman to do so. (Sorry, Dan Boyle.)
Hedman, 27, needed to edge two former Norris winners in Drew Doughty and P.K. Subban to earn the honor. It was a great year for the towering blueliner, as he generated 17 goals (a new career-high), marking his fifth consecutive 10+ goal season.
Naturally, his all-around game was fantastic as he collected 63 points, just behind last season’s peak of 72.
As usual, the most fun part of this process is finding out how the voting shook out via the PHWA:
Interesting to see some of the players who received stray first-place votes. While Seth Jones finished higher in overall voting, he finished with two first-place votes compared to John Carlson’s three. John Klingberg also received one top Norris nod, while Brent Burns was the lowest-ranked player (eight) to receive a No. 1 Norris vote.
Watch Hedman’s “nervous” acceptance speech in the video above this post’s headline.
