Boston Bruins Awards Watch: Charlie McAvoy worthy of Norris Trophy

Drafted 14th overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins, Charlie McAvoy has always had great potential. This was evident when he made his NHL debut at just 19 years old during the 2017 playoffs.

McAvoy would spend the entire 2017-18 season in the NHL and post very impressive offensive numbers of seven goals and 25 assists for 32 points in 63 games. He was also no slack defensively, registering a +20 rating, 4.5 defensive point shares (DPS), and +10 expected plus/minus (E+/-).

Chuck would be even better offensively his sophomore season, recording seven goals and 21 assists for 28 points in just 54 games. However, last year was a bit of a down year offensively for McAvoy as he matched his rookie-season point total but played four more games. All three years he’s had exceptional defensive numbers as well.

This season, with defensemen Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug departing in free agency, the B’s have been relying on McAvoy more than ever in his previous three seasons. But, as the clear-cut number one defenseman for the Black and Gold, Chuck is excelling and putting together his best season to date.

Boston Bruins’ defenseman Charlie McAvoy deserves to be a finalist for the Norris Trophy this season.

Right now, McAvoy is tied with three other defensemen with 17 points. This point total is actually less than 13 other defenseman. The defenseman with the most points is Victor Hedman with 25 in 24 games, but he plays on the offensively stacked team of the Tampa Bay Lighting.

While McAvoy doesn’t have the best offensive numbers, his three goals and 14 assists for 17 points in just 23 games is still very impressive.

Another reason why McAvoy is deserving of the Norris this season is the competition he plays against every game and how well he plays against them.

The B’s are in the toughest division in the league and as their top defenseman, McAvoy plays against the opposition’s top line. So while he isn’t the best offensively, there’s a strong argument that Chuck is better defensively than most of the defensemen that have more points than him.

It’s clear just how good McAvoy is with this one stat. At 5-on-5 with McAvoy on the ice, Boston is outshooting the opposition at a +13.4 differential per 60 minutes.

This is by far the best by any defenseman with at least 400 5-on-5 minutes. The next closest is actually Ben Chiarot at +7.3.

If you continue to look at the Twitter thread from where I got these stats, you’ll see that McAvoy is actually doing most of this without Boston’s top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak on the ice. This is crazy considering just how poorly the B’s have played at 5-on-5 with the exception of their first line.

So while McAvoy might not be the top defenseman when it comes to offense, he’s clearly a top defenseman when it comes to defense and helping his team keep the opposition out of their own zone.

His play has only gotten better with the increased responsibility and it warrants a higher spot than 10th in Norris voting as he got last season. McAvoy should at least be a finalist for the Norris, finishing no worse than fifth in voting.