Zach Werenski Is the Norris Trophy Favorite — and the Most Underpriced Defenseman in Prop Markets

Zach Werenski is a Norris Trophy finalist for the second straight season, and this time he enters as the frontrunner. The NHL confirmed Thursday that Werenski joins Rasmus Dahlin and Cale Makar on the 2026 finalist list — the same Makar who edged him out for the hardware in 2025. Werenski finished the 2025-26 regular season with 22 goals and 59 assists for 81 points, leading Columbus in scoring by 14 points over the second-place finisher on a team that didn't have a single forward crack the top 50 in NHL scoring. That context matters enormously.

The raw numbers are striking on their own, but it's the situational profile that separates Werenski from a one-dimensional offensive defenseman. He led all NHL blueliners in 5-on-5 points (47) and 5-on-5 goals (17), per Nat Stat Trick, while logging the second-highest average ice time in the league at 26:37 per game. He also ate over 91 minutes on the penalty kill — a usage pattern that reflects coaching trust across every game state, not just power-play deployment. When Werenski was on the ice at 5-on-5, Columbus outscored opponents 81-66. That's a plus-15 differential driven almost entirely by one player on a team that missed the playoffs.

A mid-season illness following the Winter Olympics in Milan — where Werenski won gold with Team USA — likely suppressed his final totals. He also won gold at the Men's World Championships. Strip away that missed time and his pace projects even higher. The Blue Jackets finished with 92 points, a meaningful step forward for a franchise still rebuilding, and Werenski's fingerprints are on virtually every positive outcome. His case for the Norris is as clean as any finalist in recent memory: elite volume, elite efficiency, and defensive credibility that Makar's voters always cited as the differentiator.

From a prop-market perspective, Werenski's 2025-26 season reframes how to approach Columbus defenseman lines heading into 2026-27. Sportsbooks have historically been slow to reprice defender shot and point props after a breakout campaign, and Werenski now has back-to-back 80-plus point seasons to anchor legitimate expectation-setting. His shots-on-goal volume — driven by that 26-plus minute ice time and dual-zone usage — makes him one of the more reliable over targets at the defenseman position when lines open for next season. If books open his points total anywhere near the 70-75 range, that's a number worth attacking early before the market corrects.

The Norris announcement itself also moves his anytime-goal and power-play points props in real time during the playoffs if Columbus were involved, though this year the Blue Jackets are watching from home. What the award cycle does is cement his market profile: Werenski is no longer a value play, he's a known commodity. The smarter angle is locking in next-season props before his Norris win — expected to be announced in June ahead of the Buffalo draft — triggers a full market reprice. Fade any books still treating him like a 60-point upside play.