Erik Karlsson wins Norris Trophy as record-breaking season ends in fitting fashion

Erik Karlsson’s record-breaking season culminated Monday with the Norris Trophy, as the San Jose Sharks All-Star was voted the NHL’s top defenseman for the third time in his illustrious 14-year career.

Karlsson, now in his fifth season with the Sharks, beat out other finalists Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Adam Fox of the New York Rangers in a vote by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Makar won the award last season and Fox won in 2021 on a Rangers team coached by current Sharks bench boss David Quinn.

Karlsson was first on 123 of 196 ballots and had 1,585 voting points, well ahead of Fox (1,125) and Makar (553). Voters put five individuals on their ballot and players receive 10 points for a first-place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth, and one for fifth.

Karlsson also won the Norris with Ottawa in 2012 and 2015 and is the ninth NHL defenseman to capture the award three times. He is also the fourth blueliner to win it with multiple teams, joining Chris Chelios (Chicago and Montreal), Paul Coffey (Detroit and Edmonton), and Doug Harvey (Montreal and N.Y. Rangers).

In his acceptance speech, Karlsson thanked his wife Melinda, team owner Hasso Plattner, and general manager Mike Grier. He also thanked the Sharks’ coaching staff who he said, “rejuvenated a guy like me.”

Karlsson thanked his Sharks teammates and said that despite a 22-44-16 season, they “showed up every day, during tough circumstances and not winning as many games as we would have liked, you made it enjoyable every day to come to the rink, work hard and have a chance to play the game that we still love. That’s why we do this.”

This was the fifth time in Karlsson’s career that he has been named a Norris finalist, and the type of season he had might never be duplicated by another Sharks defenseman.

He had 25 goals and 76 assists in 82 games as he became the first blueliner since Brian Leetch in 1991-92 to record over 100 points in a season. He easily smashed the former Sharks record for points in a season by a defenseman of 83, set by Brent Burns in 2018-19.

Karlsson and Burns are the only Sharks players to win the Norris. Burns was voted the winner in 2017.

Other defensemen to win the Norris at least three times are Harvey and Nicklas Lidstrom (seven each),  Ray Bourque (five), and Chelios, Coffey, Pierre Pilote, and Denis Potvin (three each).

Karlsson also set a new NHL record for defensemen by factoring on 43.35 percent of San Jose’s total goals (101 of 233), eclipsing Bobby Orr, who figured into 120 of Boston’s 277 goals (43.32 percent) during the 1969-70 season. Orr won the Norris Trophy that year, the second of a record eight times he captured the award.

“I feel really good about my game,” Karlsson told reporters in Nashville on Monday night. “I feel really good about myself right now and I’m excited to be in the place that I’m at.”

Karlsson’s time in San Jose prior to this year had been most notable for the amount of time he’s had to miss because of injury, especially last season when he played in just 50 of 82 games and collected a disappointing 35 points.

Karlsson wore that disappointment like an albatross around his neck. As the NHL’s highest-paid defenseman whose contract carries an $11.5 million cap hit, Karlsson sometimes felt like he was letting his teammates and Sharks fans down.

Healthy this year, though, and reinvigorated by a new coaching staff, Karlsson had 11 points in 11 games in October and 40 points in 27 games in November and December. Karlsson then scored 50 points in the Sharks’ last 44 games, even though the Sharks were well out of playoff contention.

“As much as I try and stay in the moment, reflecting back as much as I can at this stage gives me a lot of joy,” Karlsson said, “and I think that’s the most important thing that maybe I’ve been missing for a little bit. It’s just enjoying the game of hockey again. I love to play the sport. I love what I do and I think that really shows.”

“He’s a special player. He’s the best defenseman in the league and one of the top players in the league,” Quinn said in December. “This guy changes games. It’s unbelievable to watch.”

Karlsson was also a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league’s most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players’ Association. Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid instead won the award for the fourth time in his career.

Karlsson said his vote went to McDavid.

“He is, for my generation, probably the best player that I’ve seen,” Karlsson said of McDavid. “Just to be (a finalist) means a lot.”

Attention will now turn to Wednesday’s NHL Draft and whether Karlsson might be on the move to another team sometime this summer.

Karlsson on Sunday reiterated his desire to play for a winner. The Sharks have missed the playoffs for four straight years and while Grier does not envision going through a protracted rebuild, San Jose, at the moment, does not figure to be a playoff contender next season.

“I’ve played with too many guys throughout my career that are amazing players and should be winners and should have won that never did,” Karlsson said Sunday in Nashville. “I don’t want to be that guy. I want to win. That’s not to say that I’m going to win.

“I want an opportunity to win. If that opportunity is not in San Jose right now within my timeline, then that’s just the unfortunate part of the business. That’s not to say that I don’t like it there or they don’t want me there or we don’t want this to work. It’s just that’s just the way it is.”

Karlsson’s contract lasts through the 2026-27 season and he feels he can be productive for several more years.

“I had a fantastic year and I felt good the whole way,” Karlsson said. “But I still feel like there’s more and that’s what makes me excited.”