Avalanche star Cale Makar wins second Norris Trophy in four years

Cale Makar has officially stamped himself as one of the greatest defensemen in the history of the National Hockey League, as the Colorado Avalanche superstar won his second James Norris Memorial Trophy on Wednesday. It’s Makar’s second time winning the award in four years after he first won the award in 2022.

Adding another trophy to the shelf 🏆

Congrats, Cale, on this well-deserved honor! pic.twitter.com/dEUpP6FWfk

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) June 11, 2025

Makar, 26, became the first defenseman to score 30 goals in the regular season since 2009 and the ninth overall. He led all defensemen in points (92), goals (30) and assists (62), making this second-straight year the Canadian tallied at least 90 points. He also joined another elite club this year, becoming just the sixth defensemen in the history of the NHL to hit the 90-point mark in multiple seasons.

The Colorado star also competed for Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off back in February this season. Makar only played in three games due to an illness he was dealing with, and recorded just one assists in those three games, but still brought a ton of value that didn’t show up in the box score when he was on the ice as he helped Canada win the tournament.

The voting totals reflected just how dominant of a regular season that Makar had, as he received 176 of the 191 first-place votes.

Final voting results for the 2024-25 Norris Trophy: pic.twitter.com/oJWXDnBpP3

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 11, 2025

However, Makar was not his normal self in the postseason for the Avalanche, as he had just one goal and four assists throughout the seven-game series against the Dallas Stars, with the goal and two of the assists all coming in Game 6. He had four games that series in which he didn’t record a point, his most such games in a series in his six-year career.

This is Makar’s fifth nomination for the award in his first six seasons in the league, an accomplishment only seen by three other players in NHL history in Bobby Orr, Dennis Potvin and Brad Park. Orr won the award a record eight times in his career while Potvin won three times. Park never won the award because he was always up against Orr in the running, and was never able to top his performances.

The defenseman was surprised with the award when he was seemingly out for just a normal round of golf with his buddies before they sprung the news on him that he had won.

Halfway to fore. 🏌

A golf outing with friends turned into a surprise party to celebrate Cale Makar's second James Norris Memorial Trophy! 👏

Watch the 2025 #NHLAwards before Game 4 of the #StanleyCup Final on June 12 at 6p ET on @NHL_On_TNT and @Sportsnet! pic.twitter.com/UVKkLsLObQ

— NHL (@NHL) June 11, 2025

Makar is still the only player in the burgundy and blue to bring home the award, as Ray Borque won all five of his trophies during his time with the Boston Bruins.

This is the fifth trophy in Makar’s already-stacked case, as he won the Norris in 2022, the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2022 (best player in the postseason), Calder Memorial Trophy in 2020 (Rookie of the Year) and the Hobey Baker Award in 2019 (NCAA D1 MVP). At just 26 years old, he has plenty of time left to continue adding to his collection.

There are now 14 players in the history of the NHL who have won the award multiple times, and Makar has the opportunity to become just the 10th player to win the award at least three times if he can keep up his one-of-a-kind offensive production for Colorado in the seasons to come. It will be difficult for anyone, not just Makar, to match Orr’s historic mark of eight Norris trophies, but the young D-man has already established himself as one of the greats.

Makar was also a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award alongside Nathan MacKinnon this year, but neither Avalanche star came away with that hardware as it went to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov instead.

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