Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski was named the winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the 2025-26 National Hockey League season, the club and league announced today. The award is given annually to the NHL\u2019s \u201ctop defensive player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-around ability in the position.\u201d The other finalists for 2025-26 were Colorado\u2019s Cale Makar and Buffalo\u2019s Rasmus Dahlin.<\/p>\n
Werenski, who finished second in the voting to Makar last season, recorded 22 goals and 59 assists for 81 points, including 18-41-59 at even-strength, with 260 shots on goal and a +7 plus\/minus rating on 26:37 of ice time in 75 games in 2025-26. He finished second in the NHL in average ice time, 14th-T in even-strength points and 15th in multi-point efforts (26). He also led league blueliners in multi-point efforts, even-strength goals (tied) and shots on goal and ranked second in points, points-per-game (1.08) and even-strength points, third-T in goals and fourth-T in assists.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old blueliner led Columbus in assists, points, points-per-game, multi-point efforts and shots on goal and finished third in goals. He set a single-season club record for multi-point outings and tied the franchise mark for assists for the second consecutive season. He also registered the third-highest total for even-strength points and fourth-most points in a single campaign in franchise history.<\/p>\n
The Grosse Pointe, Michigan native became the fifth\u00a0U.S.-born defenseman in NHL history to record multiple 80-point campaigns in 2025-26 after notching 23-59-82 in 81 games in 2024-25, and is the third to accomplish the feat in consecutive seasons, joining Phil Housley (1991-92 to 1992-93 with Winnipeg) and Brian Leetch (1990-91 to 1991-92 with NY Rangers). He\u2019s also the third American blueliner to notch consecutive 20-goal campaigns along with Housley (six-straight from 1986-92) and Reed Larson (five-straight from 1979-84).<\/p>\n
The James Norris Memorial Trophy was first presented in 1953-54 by the children of the late James Norris in memory of the former owner-president of the Detroit Red Wings. Nominees are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association at the end of the regular season with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists.<\/p>\n
Werenski is the franchise\u2019s all-time leader in assists and ranks second in points, third in games played, fourth in shots on goal and fifth in goals with 135-330-465 and 1,846 shots in 642 career games in 10 NHL seasons with the Blue Jackets. He leads all NHL defensemen in even-strength goals (104) and ranks third in goals, fourth in shots on goal and eighth in points since making his NHL debut in 2016-17. He was selected by Columbus in the first round, eighth overall, at the 2015\u00a0NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
Werenski is the seventh Blue Jacket to capture a major NHL award: Rick Nash \u2013 Maurice \u201cRocket\u201d Richard Trophy (NHL goals leader), 2003-04; Nash \u2013 NHL Foundation Player Award (Community Service), 2008-09; Steve Mason \u2013 Calder Memorial Trophy (Top Rookie), 2008-09; Sergei Bobrovsky \u2013 Vezina Trophy (Top Goaltender), 2012-13 and 2016-17; Nick Foligno \u2013 King Clancy Award (Leadership & Community Service), 2016-17; Foligno \u2013 Mark Messier Leadership Award, 2016-17; John Tortorella \u2013 Jack Adams Trophy (Top Coach), 2016-17; Sean Monahan \u2013 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (Perseverance, Sportsmanship, Dedication to Hockey), 2024-25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski was named the winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-680212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}