As the NHL regular season winds down, award debates are heating up, and the race for the James Norris Memorial Trophy has suddenly sparked controversy. What started as a routine discussion about the league’s top defenseman has now turned into calls to strip a voter of his ballot after a surprising argument against Edmonton Oilers star Evan Bouchard.
PHWA Member Faces Heat Over Eyebrow-Raising Take on Evan Bouchard
Of late, the Norris race has essentially become a two-player battle. Bouchard has put together a dominant season. He leads all NHL defensemen with 88 points (21 goals, 67 assists) in 77 games, along with a +23 rating while averaging 24:39 of ice time.
Right behind him is Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who has also impressed with 78 points (21 goals, 57 assists) and a +10 rating. The tight statistical race already had analysts divided, but the debate took a sharp turn when a member of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association weighed in.
John Buccigross explained why he believes Werenski deserves the award, saying, “I’m counting the gold medal game in my voting. That’s Bucci’s rule. That counts. So if it’s close, Zerenski wins the Norris because he made that play that counts. That’s a weighted vote this year.”
Werenski was part of Team USA’s gold medal victory over Team Canada, and Buccigross suggested that performance should influence his NHL award ballot. That reasoning immediately drew criticism across the hockey world.
NHL analyst Ross Levitan didn’t hold back, saying that the reasoning alone should invalidate the ballot, saying, “This should disqualify his entire ballot lol.”
Another analyst, Jeff Veillette, took a more sarcastic approach, comparing the logic to rewarding players for video-game performance. “If I ever get awards votes, I’m going to start using them to reward players for having sick cards on EA Sports Ultimate Team. It’s about as relevant to NHL awards voting as a game in the Olympics.”
The backlash continued from fans and content creators, with one hockey channel arguing that Olympic performances should not impact a regular-season NHL award. “It’s actually embarrassing for the league. Olympics should not matter for a regular-season award. Why don’t we focus on how CBJ has lost 6 in a row with Werenski ghosting,” Top Tier Hockey said.
Kevin McCurdy also weighed in, emphasizing the rules behind the trophy: “This man has PHWA voting rights. In 2026. Somehow. And yet doesn’t understand what the words ‘regular season’ mean… The James Norris Memorial Trophy… is awarded annually… at the end of each season… during the regular season.”
The core argument from critics is simple: the Norris Trophy is strictly based on NHL regular-season performance. International tournaments, including Olympic Games, fall outside that scope.
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Ultimately, the controversy centers on fairness and consistency. Many believe using non-NHL events in voting undermines the integrity of league awards, and potentially penalizes Bouchard despite his standout season.
There’s still a few games for Bouchard to pull ahead in this race, and with the Oilers looking to seal home-ice advantage for the first round, this is as good an opportunity as any for the Edmonton star to prove his doubters wrong.
