{"id":70389,"date":"2025-06-11T18:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/70389\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T18:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:42:16","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-zach-werenski-2nd-in-norris-trophy-voting-for-nhls-best-defenseman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/70389\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski 2nd in Norris Trophy voting for NHL’s best defenseman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best season of Zach Werenski\u2019s career <\/a>now includes a second-place finish in the voting for the 2024-25 Norris Trophy given to the NHL\u2019s top defenseman.<\/p>\n

After a vote by the Professional Hockey Writers Association<\/a>, the Blue Jackets star<\/a> finished behind Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Maker received 176 first-place votes, 13 for second place and two for third. Werenski received 13 first-place votes, 132 for second, 38 for third, seven for fourth and one for fifth. Maker had 1,861 points, followed by Werenski’s 1,266 and Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes’ 918. Hughes got two first-pace votes.<\/p>\n

More: 3 reasons why Columbus Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski is a Norris Trophy finalist<\/a><\/p>\n

Werenski, the only Blue Jackets defenseman ever named a finalist for the Norris Trophy, led the team in scoring <\/a>by setting career highs in goals (23), assists (59) and points (82) to average a career-best 1.01 points per game. He also led the NHL\u2019s mid-season 4 Nations Face-Off in scoring<\/a> and helped the U.S. win the men\u2019s world championship gold medal<\/a> on May 25 in Stockholm, Sweden.<\/p>\n

\"Columbus<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (8) skates around Buffalo Sabres center Sam Lafferty (81) during the third period of the NHL hockey game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on April 10, 2025. The Blue Jackets won 3-2.<\/p>\n

Werenski also played a lot of hockey. He led the NHL in ice time with 2,166:22 and averaged 26:45 per game \u2014 1:02 more per game than the next closest player (Makar 25:43). He also put together a 22-game home point streak <\/a>that ended Feb. 25 tied as the third-longest by a defenseman in NHL history with Phil Housley’s 22-game streak in 1991-92 for the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n

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Off the ice, Werenski acted as the Blue Jackets\u2019 stand-in captain <\/a>for more than half of their resurgent season after captain Boone Jenner underwent shoulder surgery\u00a0for an injury that occurred during a preseason practice.<\/p>\n

Among his offensive exploits, Werenski netted five power-play goals while quarterbacking the top unit and scored one shorthanded goal. He also scored five winning goals and put a career-high 298 shots on net among 638 attempts.<\/p>\n

\"Columbus<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (8) skates past Vegas Golden Knights left wing Brandon Saad (20) during the second period of the NHL hockey game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on March 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

Defensively, Werenski played regularly against the opposing team\u2019s top line and played a top role killing penalties. He blocked a career-high 131 shots, which ranked second on the team behind defense partner Dante Fabbro\u2019s 136, and the Blue Jackets generated 52.3% of all even-strength shot attempts\u00a0with Werenski on the ice.<\/p>\n

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Makar led all NHL defensemen in goals (30), assists (62) and points (92) while posting a +28 plus\/minus and logging 25:43 per game for the Avalanche.<\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story that will include comments and further analysis to come<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger<\/a> can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com<\/a> and @BrianHedger.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n

Get more on the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> with our Cannon Fodder podcast<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Zach Werenski finishes 2nd in Norris Trophy vote for Blue Jackets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best season of Zach Werenski\u2019s career now includes a second-place finish in the voting for the 2024-25…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[3644,5390,1107,229,5133,1116,144,7405,2881,5,4,2567,14087,1496,1108,893,2566],"class_list":{"0":"post-70389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-boone-jenner","10":"tag-buffalo","11":"tag-buffalo-sabres","12":"tag-buffalosabres","13":"tag-cale-makar","14":"tag-colorado-avalanche","15":"tag-dante-fabbro","16":"tag-defenseman","17":"tag-hockey","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-norris-trophy","20":"tag-professional-hockey-writers-association","21":"tag-quinn-hughes","22":"tag-sabres","23":"tag-vancouver","24":"tag-zach-werenski"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114666205728765333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}