This year’s Norris Trophy race was compelling and hotly contested. Fan bases from Los Angeles, Nashville, Montreal and Ottawa passionately promoted their hometown favorite. Injuries sidelined some other good candidates.

(Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports)

The debate brought out some who wish the award would go to a defensive defenseman, with a new award being created for the league’s best offensive defenseman. However, Bobby Orr long ago broke the mold on what is considered an elite defenseman. For the past 45 years, the award has almost exclusively gone to high scoring defenders, with just a few occasional exceptions. In fact, only three times over that time has the Norris Trophy winner had a point total below 50 points, P.K. Subban, due to the lockout and Rod Langway did it twice. If Drew Doughty had won this year, he would have done so with the lowest point total for a winner in over 30 years.

Now more than ever, the game is dominated by mobile defensemen that control and drive play in a puck possession era. A quick peek at the Stanley Cup final will tell you that Victor Hedman and Duncan Keith dominated these playoffs while high scoring forwards were mostly nullified. The best defense is puck possession and Erik Karlsson exemplifies that more than any other in today’s game.

In Elite Company

D-men to win multiple Norris trophies 25 and under: Orr 6 Potvin 3 Coffey 2 Karlsson 2

— Steve Lloyd (@TSNSteveLloyd) June 24, 2015

With a second Norris Trophy win, Karlsson is starting to write history. He is now one of only 13 players to win the Norris Trophy twice. He joins Orr, Paul Coffey and Denis Potvin as the only defensemen in NHL history to win the award twice by the age of 25. That is very good company.

Karlsson now has back-to-back 20-goal seasons. Only five defensemen in NHL history have had two 20-goal seasons by the age of 25 (Coffey, Orr, Potvin, Ray Bourque and Phil Housley). The most recent player to accomplish the feat was Brian Leetch in 1992. Karlsson also had a 19-goal season in 2012, when he won his first Norris Trophy.

Best Offensive Production Since Leetch

Karlsson now has three seasons of more than 65 points. He likely would have had four if not for the lockout season in which he also suffered a sliced achilles. Only six defensemen have accomplished this before the age of 25 (the same five as above plus Al MacInnis). Once again, this has not been done since Leetch in 1992.

Karlsson has 84 career goals in 397 games. That is the 11th best total by a defenseman before the age of 25. The most recent player to exceed that total is Al Iafrate in 1991 with 87 goals. Coffee leads this statistic with 192 goals in 473 games during the high-flying 80’s.

Rk		Name	Pos	Season	GP	G	A	P
1		Bobby Orr	D	1972-73	467	181	432	613
2		Paul Coffey	D	1985-86	473	192	410	602
3		Phil Housley	D	1988-89	528	157	320	477
4		Ray Bourque	D	1984-85	428	134	308	442
5		Denis Potvin	D	1977-78	394	124	278	402
6		Scott Stevens	D	1988-89	545	87	302	389
7		Dave Babych	D	1985-86	452	83	291	374
8		Larry Murphy	D	1985-86	471	99	274	373
9		Brian Leetch	D	1992-93	353	80	287	367
10		Al MacInnis	D	1987-88	370	82	260	342
11		Paul Reinhart	D	1984-85	395	86	254	340
12		Erik Karlsson	D	2014-15	397	84	219	303
13		Doug Bodger	D	1990-91	489	59	231	290
14		Gary Suter	D	1988-89	286	61	208	269
15		Jeff Brown	D	1990-91	352	75	192	267

Karlsson has 303 career points, ranking him 12th all-time in point scoring before age 25. Leetch is once again the most recent to exceed this with 367 points by 1993.

Reminder that Erik Karlsson is the most dominant offensive defenseman the NHL has seen since Bobby Orr. Generational talent.

— Rhys Jessop (@Thats_Offside) June 24, 2015

Whether it is Norris Trophy awards, goals, assists, shot attempts or points, Karlsson is joining the who’s who of NHL defensemen to this point in his young career. Made all the more impressive by the fact he is doing it in an era when goal scoring totals are very low compared to the 80’s and early 90’s.

He is fully recovered from that horrific Achilles injury and is just now entering the prime of his career. The next few years will be fun to watch.