Frank Gunn / AP

Washington's Alex Ovechkin poses with, the Richard Trophy, Pearson Award, Hart Trophy and Ross Trophy in June.

Norris Trophy (best defenseman)
Nicklas Lidstrom
Detroit Red Wings
As long as he stays healthy the Swede will win this award for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. I believe his numbers will be better than they were last season when in 76 games he had 70 points (10 goals and 60 assists). With his superb passing and wise shot selection, Lidstrom is an integral part of a Red Wings’ power play that should be overwhelming with the addition of free agent winger Marian Hossa. And Detroit’s offense will be an overpowering one.

I also expect that Lidstrom’s plus-minus will be better, which is really saying something as he finished second to teammate Pavel Datsyuk in this category last season (Datsyuk was plus 41, Lidstrom was plus 40).

Lidstrom, who turns 39 next April, will get competition for the Norris from Chris Pronger of Anaheim and Dion Phaneuf of Calgary but if he stays healthy the only way he doesn’t win this award will be if Detroit coach Mike Babcock paces him for another Red Wings’ run at the Stanley Cup.

Now that Detroit has gotten Brad Stuart’s signature on a four-year contract no team can boast a top six on defense (Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, Stuart, Brett Lebda and Andreas Lilja) as good as Detroit’s. Lidstrom averaged 26 minutes and 43 seconds a game of ice time last season but with such a strong unit of blue liners Babcock does not have to play Lidstrom the amount of minutes he did last season. So if Lidstrom happens to average around 25 minutes a game his numbers could be impacted and so could his chance at taking home another Norris. But Lidstrom’s physical conditioning is incredible so Babcock might not have to drop his minutes much if at all.

Adams Award (best coach)
Barry Melrose
Tampa Bay Lightning
I was torn on this one between Ken Hitchcock of Columbus and Barry Melrose of Tampa Bay. The Lightning along with the Kings finished with the fewest points (71) in the league last season. But this season I see Tampa Bay making the most improvement in its point total of any team and threatening for a playoff spot so I’m going with Melrose to win the Adams.

With his return to coaching the biggest learning curve Melrose will have will be getting to know his own players. When it comes to the league, well, there aren’t many people who watched more hockey than Melrose did while he was at ESPN so he doesn’t need to learn about the opposition.

Melrose is a players’ coach, who is a good communicator. I expect that the majority of Tampa Bay players will flourish under Melrose and he should do a fantastic job in his first season with the Lightning. After year one, the challenge for Melrose will be to see what kind of staying power his style of coaching will have with the Lightning.

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