Los Angeles Kings defenseman and assistant captain Drew Doughty has been nominated for the James Norris Memorial Trophy, the National Hockey League announced on April 19.
The Norris Trophy is an annual award given to the defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.
Doughty won the Norris Trophy in 2016. He was also a finalist in 2010 and 2015.
Rob Blake is the only other Kings defenseman to win the award (1998).
The 2018 NHL Awards will be held on June 20, at The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s state-of-the-art concert and entertainment venue.
NBCSN and Sportsnet will broadcast the event live in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, at 5 p.m. (PT).
Below is a look at Doughty’s 2017-18 season highlights including notes and statistics:
- Set career-highs in assists (50) and points (60). His 10 goals marked the third consecutive season he has scored at least 10.
- Led the league in TOI/gm (26:50; 10th consecutive year leading the team in this category, having led the team in TOI/gm every year he has been in the NHL).
- Led team defensemen in goals, assists (sixth in the league among defensemen) and points (seventh in the league among defensemen).
- Appeared in all 82 games for the fourth consecutive season and currently has the longest consecutive games played streak on the team (328, two shy of the franchise record set by Anze Kopitar from March, 2007 to March, 2011).
- Is the fourth Kings all-time defenseman to reach 50 assists.
- His 50 assists were tied for the second most assists in a single season by a Kings defenseman (third time, along with Lubomir Visnovsky and Steve Duchesne in 1988-89).
- Tallied his 300th career assist and 400th career point on Feb. 7.
- Notched his 100th career goal on Jan. 30 to surpass Duchesne for 2nd on the Kings’ all-time goals scored list by a defenseman.
- Voted the Most Outstanding Defenseman (sixth consecutive year and ninth time overall) as voted by local media and was named the Jim Fox Community Service Award recipient by the Kings Care Foundation.
As a team, Doughty and the Kings led the league in penalty kill percentage at 85.0% (third when playing at home at 86.3% and third on the road at 83.8%).
They were first in the league in GAA (2.46) and first in total goals against overall (202; their second time in the last five seasons to finish on top, also 2013-14; 168 GA).
Goalie Jonathan Quick won his second William Jennings Trophy -- goalkeeper(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it -- this season, and it was announced on April 17 that Anze Kopitar has been nominated for the Selke Trophy (forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game).
