But while Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy because the NHL's best defenseman a whopping seven times during his Hall of Fame profession, Vlasic was never even near being a finalist. The Norris is more about point production, and Vlasic, who has been used primarily within the shutdown role in his 18-plus seasons, only received votes for the award 4 times.
Vlasic doesn't mind, but he has a suggestion for the NHL.
“I hope they award two trophies later,” he said.
The Norris and one other for one of the best shutdown defender within the league.
“I find it absolutely absurd,” said Vlasic, who celebrated his 1,three hundredth on Thursday. could play an NHL game when the Sharks play the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
Currently, the NHL has a handful of awards for forwards: The Art Ross Trophy goes to the producer with essentially the most points, the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy goes to the league's top scorer, and the Frank J. Selke Trophy goes to the league's best defensive forward League. Chris Pronger was the last defenseman to win the Hart Memorial Trophy because the NHL's most respected player in 2000.
Even goalkeepers have two awards: the Vezina Trophy goes to one of the best individual goalkeeper, and the William M. Jennings Trophy is awarded to the goalkeeper(s) who played a minimum of 25 games for his or her team and scored the fewest goals.
But there isn’t a second award for defenders – aside from Norris.
“They have a Vezina and a Jennings. They have two goalkeepers,” Vlasic said. “They have one for D-men, two for goalkeepers and the rest are forwards. That doesn’t make any sense.”
According to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the thought of creating an award for one of the best defensive defensemen was never seriously considered.
“No, I don’t think this was ever seriously considered,” Daly wrote in an email to this news organization.
The most up-to-date individual awards for players were the Rocket Richard Trophy, established by the Montreal Canadiens in 1999 in honor of their franchise icon, and the Mark Messier Leadership Award, created by the NHL and first presented in 2007.
Daly said the creation of a brand new league award would generally begin with a suggestion from league and/or club executive directors to the Board of Governors.
“The Selke give it to him, of course. The best defensive striker,” said Vlasic. “But there’s (no defensive award) for D-men, which is outrageous. Outrageous.”
If there had been a shutdown defenseman award, Vlasic probably would have been a strong candidate for several years.
Vlasic averaged nearly 22 minutes of ice time per game from 2006 to 2020. During that time, he was the Sharks' leading penalty taker in terms of average time on ice (2:34 per game) and also blocked 1,766 shots in 1,035 games.
Vlasic was greatly missed by the Sharks in the 2014 playoffs when he was injured in Game 5 of their first-round series against Los Angeles, as the Kings rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to win in seven games. As a sign of his worth, Vlasic, who usually faces the opposition's best strikers, won Olympic gold with Team Canada earlier this year.
When the Sharks reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2016, Vlasic and his partner Justin Braun held then-Kings forward Tyler Toffoli, who scored 31 goals that year, to one assist in five games in the playoffs Nashville Predators Filip Forsberg, who scored 33 goals, was required to score one goal in seven games, and Vladimir Tarasenko, then with the St. Louis Blues, was only allowed two goals in six games achieve. This year he scored 40 points.
After being drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2019, Sharks defenseman Henry Thrun requested clips of Vlasic and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin from the team's director of player development Todd Marchant to study. Marchant now holds the same position in San Jose.
“Marc was probably the best defensive player in the game,” Thrun said. “Someone who really understands the ins and outs of the game and still understands it. … He's like he has a different coach out there. Such a calm demeanor and understanding of every aspect of the game.”
Vlasic could have reached that milestone last season, but was a healthy scratch in 22 of the Sharks' first 41 games. But starting with a game in his hometown of Montreal on January 11, 2024, Vlasic played 38 of 41 games in the second half of the season. The three failures were due to injury.
This season, Vlasic was considered a non-roster player until earlier this month. He was injured before the start of training camp and needed extra time to build up his conditioning as he prepared for a return, according to the Sharks. The Sharks' coaching staff was impressed with Vlasic's work ethic, professionalism and willingness to improve during this time.
Vlasic has played in three of the Sharks' six games in the new year, getting more ice time each game. On Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings, Vlasic played 17:49, set up Nico Sturm's shorthanded goal in the first period and made a regular substitution in the third period in the Sharks' 6-3 win.
The Sharks are 3-0-0 with Vlasic in the lineup.
“You can just feel his presence,” Vlasic’s defense partner Jan Rutta said on the Sharks Audio Network. “Almost 1,300 games, the game is pretty easy with him.”
“He knows how to play the position at an extremely high level. He’s done it his entire career,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “He stabilizes us a little bit back there.”
Warsofsky, who played defense in college and had a brief professional career, also believes the NHL should have a defensive defense award.
“If you asked any coach in this league, the defender they pick for their team might be the guy that stabilizes the back end by just being easy, finishing and finishing plays,” Warsofsky said. “So I would be 100% in favor of the NHL adding a (defensive defenseman award).”
“This has been talked about for so long,” Vlasic said. “Yet no one has made any adjustments.”
Originally published:
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