NHL Norris Trophy Odds 2025-26: Who Is NHL’s Best Defensemen?

Many regular-season awards in the NHL will likely be genuinely competitive come springtime in 2026.

The Hart Trophy, Jack Adams, Calder, etc, are all likely to be close races up until the end. And that’s not even counting the Lady Byng sportsmanship award, which usually turns into a steel cage match once the voters begin making up their minds. 

But one award, the Norris Trophy — which is awarded each year to the league’s top defenseman — may be a little less competitive this season because of the pedigree of one particular blue-liner. 

Here’s a look at where the odds stand as of December 4 for the top candidates for this year’s Norris Trophy. 

Who’s Favored to Win the 2025-26 Norris Trophy?

Cale Makar, Avalanche (-525)

Colorado’s 27-year-old defensive phenom Cale Makar has become an early minus-odds favorite for this year’s Norris Trophy. 

Makar is already a two-time Norris Trophy winner, first in 2022 and then again last season. The oddsmakers believe that Makar is a prohibitive favorite to repeat his Norris win this season. 

Makar is one of the main drivers of the Avalanche’s current domination of almost everyone else in the NHL. Colorado currently has a 19-1-6 record after their 3-1 win over the Canucks on December 2. 

The Avalanche has a truly mind-boggling scoring differential. They’re leading the league in goals scored with 106 and have the fewest goals allowed with 53. A lot of the credit for that has to go to Makar’s two-way prowess. 

So far this season, Makar has nine goals and 23 assists in 26 games. He’s also earned a +29 plus/minus rating. 

He’s leading the league’s defensive point share category with a 3.1 rating and is second in overall point share with 6.4 behind his teammate, Nathan MacKinnon. 

If anyone below Makar, like Quinn Hughes or Zach Werenski, is going to try to unseat him in the Norris race, it probably can’t happen without a significant dropoff in Colorado’s performance as a team. And based on the fact that we’re a couple of months into this season and the Avalanche still only have one regulation loss, it seems highly unlikely that it could break Hughes or Werenski’s way.