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As I continue to preview the upcoming season, I'm going to be taking a closer look at most of the major awards, and predicting who will win each in 2014-15.

In this edition of the hotstove I'll be looking at the Norris Trophy.

My pick to take home the hardware next season is Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman.

When you think of the league's top blue liners, his name generally isn't one that comes to mind, but he's quietly developed into one of the best defensemen in hockey, and his numbers from last year are in line with what we saw from the three Norris finalists.

Below you'll see Hedman's standard and advanced stats compared to those of Duncan Keith, Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara.



Didn't expect Hedman to stack up that well, did you? He was 2nd in 5 vs 5 points, 1st in 5 vs 5 points per 60 minutes played, and had the best Corsi relative numbers on the board. In case you're new to that metric, it measures how many more/less shot attempts a player's team generates with Player X on the ice as opposed to him on the bench.

Hedman was ahead of all but Keith in terms of offensive zone starts, but his numbers are still extremely impressive. I think they're better than Keith's as a whole, and I don't think he should have won the Norris last year, but that's a debate for another day.

Hedman was elite last season, and at 23 he still hasn't reached his prime. Factor in that he has a better supporting cast around him this year than last, and there's no reason to believe his numbers won't continue to improve.

He's my Norris pick for 2014-15, who's yours? Feel free to leave your thoughts as well as any ideas you'd like to see covered in future hotstove posts.

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