A simple search for Cale Makar highlights on YouTube would help a casual sports fan see why the Colorado Avalanche defenseman is a star player.
It’s the day-to-day consistency that has helped Makar chart a path towards being an all-time great. Makar was named one of three finalists Thursday for the Norris Trophy, which is awarded annually to the “defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.”
This is the sixth consecutive season that Makar is a finalist. He’s already in select company, and the groups of all-time defensemen he’s part of are getting smaller. He and Bobby Orr are the only players to do it six times in their first seven seasons.
“I feel like he’s the best player on the ice every game,” Avs defenseman Sam Malinski said. “Itap him and (Nathan MacKinnon) every time. Itap pretty special for all of us to witness. Itap everything he does, on the ice the and in the locker room too. He’s just great all around.”
Makar has won the Norris twice. When he wins for a third time — because assuming good health, that is a when, not an if — he will join a group of 10 players with three or more. That is the inner circle of all-time greats, with maybe Larry Robinson (two wins) as the only exception.
A fourth would put him in the VIP room of the inner circle — Orr, Nicklas Lidstrom, Doug Harvey and Ray Bourque are the only players with more than three. But that’s not the only way to measure greatness.
Winning any NHL trophy that is voted on by humans can be a fickle thing. There will always be years where someone else maybe should have won.
Six consecutive years as a finalist, or finishing in the top three of the voting, is an incredible achievement. That takes a level of consistency that few players can ever reach. Erik Karlsson is a first-ballot Hall of Fame player and has won the Norris three times, but he’s also been a finalist six times — never more than three years in a row.
Chris Chelios, Paul Coffey and Dennis Potvin have all won three times but never been a finalist in six consecutive seasons, though Potvin was close with six in seven years. Robinson is a two-time winner and six-time finalist, but “just” five in a row at his peak.
To be considered a top-three defenseman for six straight seasons takes a combination of talent, production, injury luck and consistency.
“I think what really sums it up is he’s just hungry,” Avs defenseman Brett Kulak said. “He’s never satisfied with his game. He’s always looking for ways to get better and he wants to be the best every night. So I think thatap kind of the separator. He’s got that level in him and that gear where he can bring it every day.”
Some players have not been recognized as much because of circumstances. Brad Park never won the Norris, in large part because he finished as a runner-up to Orr five times among his seven top-three finishes.
There’s certainly an argument to be made that finishing in the top three every year is harder now, let alone winning consistently. Voter behavior has changed. The information available to dissect these players is vastly more robust and readily available.
No one discussed expected goals, quality of competition or zone starts for players like Orr, Harvey, Bourque or even Lidstrom early in his career, let alone easy access to video beyond some highlight packages.
Victor Hedman is certainly one of the best defensemen of this century. He finished in the top three of the voting six years in a row, but has only won the Norris one time.
Quinn Hughes has joined Makar as a consensus top-two guy at the position for a few years now — Hughes has one win and just one other year as a finalist. Same for Adam Fox. Drew Doughty has one win and four years in the top three.
The other two finalists this year are Columbus’ Zach Werenski and Rasmus Dahlin. Neither has won before. This is Dahlin’s first time in the top three and Werenski’s second.
Whether or not Makar wins, he’s still just 27 years old. While the aging curve has not been kind to elite scorers throughout NHL history, all of the all-time greats were Norris winners and top contenders into their 30s except for one — Orr’s transcendent career was wrecked by knee injuries and he only played 36 NHL games after his age-26 season. Bourque is the all-time leader in top-three finishes — he collected No. 15 in his final year with the Avalanche.
When — again when, not if — Makar is a finalist for the award again, he will also join a select group. The four guys who have won the Norris more than three times, plus Park, are the five players who have been a finalist in at least seven years.
It will be just another mile marker on Makar’s journey to being remembered as one of the inner-circle all-time greats at the position.
“I think the thing is, like, in this league now, you’ve got to put up a significant number of points to be nominated for the Norris,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “All the best offensive guys in the league automatically go to the top of the list, and then from there, there’s further breakdown in my opinion. And when you have a No. 1 guy that is on power play, penalty kill, eats all the biggest minutes when you’re trailing, when you’re leading, and you’re playing in all those situations — that to me is what a No. 1 guy is and what the Norris is all about.
“So it’s not necessarily, for me, just about the points, but it’s about the way you defend, and how you keep the puck out of your net is equally as important. He certainly does all of that for us, and he does it as consistent as anyone else in the league.”
