Few players are more polarizing across the hockey world than Edmonton Oilers‘ defenceman Evan Bouchard. The offensive D-man dazzles fans with slick passes and ‘Bouch Bombs’ from the point, but also makes them pull their hair out with the occasional cartoonish blunder.

When the NHL announced its nominees for the 2025-26 James Norris Memorial Trophy on Thursday morning, his omission sparked conversation across the hockey world.

Bouchard led all defencemen in scoring this season, which typically warrants a nomination for the award. The last time a defenceman to win the scoring race failed to secure a nomination was 2020-21, when Tyson Barrie collected 48 points in the shortened season and didn’t receive a single first-place vote.

Barrie’s omission was understandable. He only won the scoring race by one point, and his poor defensive game significantly reduced his impact. Some will point to Bouchard’s defensive errors and draw a similar comparison, but that claim doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Wins Above Replacement is a statistic that combines numerous stats to estimate how many wins a player provides compared to a replacement-level player. According to HockeyStats, Barrie ranked 67th among defencemen in WAR in 2020-21, and Bouchard ranked 2nd this season. Not only did Bouchard post much better goal and scoring chance suppression numbers than Barrie, but he also killed penalties and achieved much more impressive offensive output. They are not the same.

This season’s nominees, Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin, and Cale Makar, are all fantastic players who deserve recognition. Still, the more you dig into the numbers, the more egregious Bouchard’s snub becomes.

Historical precedent

Over the last 20 years, the leading scorer among defencemen has won the Norris Trophy 11 times, and the second leading scorer four times. Producing offence is one of the best ways to get yourself into the conversation, and that’s for good reason.

In the modern NHL, defencemen aren’t expected to simply defend and hit. They need to be able to help facilitate offence, move the puck, and activate in the rush. The position has evolved beyond the big, physical stay-at-home archetype people associate with being a good defenceman. The ones who have the ability and the confidence to make plays with the puck provide far more value than the ones who defer to the “safe” off-the-glass-and-out plays.

Bouchard won the defenceman scoring race by a whopping 14 points this season. It’s the third-biggest margin a D-man has won it by in the salary cap........

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