In the Calder Trophy race last season, sensations like Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin garnered the majority of the attention. The flashy offensive player frequently appear to have a greater influence on the game than a solid, yet equally effective, defensman.
Not only did Phaneuf not receive accolades for Rookie of the Year, he was not even in consideration for the Norris Trophy as the leagues best defenseman. Now, in regular circumstances, a rookie would not normally be desrving of such an honor. However, I would argue that Phaneuf’s statistics tell us that this was not a regular circumstance.
Not only did Phaneuf play all 82 games with the Calgary Flames last season, he also manged to record 49 points and 93 penalty minutes while playing both powerplay and penalty killing roles as well.
He led all rookie defensmen in scoring with his 49 points and led all NHL Defensmen in powerplay goals with 16 while averaging over 21:00 of icetime per game. These numbers alone could make a good argument for at least a Norris Trophy nomination.
On top of that, Phaneuf led all National Hockey League defensmen in hits with an amazing 285 bodychecks, most of them of the bone-crushing variety. The following video is just an example of the wrecking ball that is Dion Phaneuf.
If he keeps building on those numbers and hitting like a freight train, I think that a Norris Trophy will be on his mantle in the near future.
October 15th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Phaneuf will certainly win a Norris Trophy, and probably soon. As great as Dion was in his rookie season, he did tail off just a bit towards the end of the season and the playoffs. Nonetheless, in his rookie season he established himself as one of the top 10 blueliners in the game. Just not top three, in terms of Norris Trophy finalists. There’s no shame in following up Niedermayer, Chara or Lidstrom.
Joe Pelletier
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