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Evan Bouchard is by no means a perfect defenseman.
By the same token, though, it would've been hard for him to have a much better season for the Edmonton Oilers. Despite that, he wasn't named one of the three finalists for the Norris Trophy that's given to the top defenseman in the NHL.
The finalists were announced Thursday, and they are Buffalo's Rasmus Dahlin, Colorado's Cale Makar and Columbus' Zach Werenski.
Bouchard misses out despite having 95 points this season -- 21 goals and 74 assists.
He played all 82 games and averaged 24 minutes and 41 seconds of ice time, a career high.
Bouchard was also a plus-25 on the season.
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Why isn't Evan Bouchard a Norris finalist?
Bouchard isn't regarded as being a quality defender as a defenseman.
Some voters must've considered that the biggest negative to Bouchard, who many see as having more of a forward's mentality while playing on the back end.
It's a bit of a flawed train of thought, though. He actually played more minutes on the penalty kill this season than all three finalists for the Norris.
There's also just an overall reality here that a player with 95 points and a plus-25 definitely had a positive impact on his team winning hockey games. So it becomes a matter of what the Norris is meant to be -- and evidently the voters felt it wasn't necessarily just the most productive player who plays in defense, but actually factored in some level of defensive value specifically to their votes. Even that is subjective, but it appears to be what happened here.
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