A historic season for the Sharks’ Brent Burns was capped in appropriate fashion Wednesday as he was named the winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman for the 2016-17 season at the league’s awards show in Las Vegas.
By a razor-thin margin, Burns beat Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson for the award in a vote by members of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association. Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman, also a finalist, was third. Voting concluded prior to the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A year after he was a first-time finalist and finished third in voting for the award, Burns, 32, became the first Sharks player to win the Norris Trophy.