The time has come for the Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky trophies.

   You might say that the last thing the National Hockey League needs right now are another trophy or two added to their already well stocked hardware shelf, but a case could be made for the point of view that the time to create a Bobby Orr trophy and a Wayne Gretzky award has now come.

   Right now we have the Art Ross, the Hart, the Norris, the Rocket Richard, the Calder, the Vezina, and the Lady Byng as what one might consider the as the first tier regular season individual trophies. Add to that the Conn Smythe trophy, and we pretty much have it covered.

   Some fans and observers have mentioned that perhaps renaming certain trophies, like, for instance making the Norris trophy the Bobby Orr trophy, or have the Hart trophy become the Wayne Gretzky trophy could be a solution.

  Personally, I'm not a fan of the renaming route. The original names help in passing down hockey history through the generations.  These trophies help tie players like Red Kelly to players like Zdeno Chara. Or guys like Howie Morenz to Sidney Crosby.

  No, rather than change what we now have, adding the Bobby Orr trophy and the Wayne Gretzky trophy would probably do the trick.

   Award the Bobby Orr trophy to the NHL's top scoring defenceman, and the Wayne Gretzky trophy to the Stanley Cup playoffs leading scorer. Those are both accomplishments which legitimately deserve to be honoured. And for those who figure that the Orr will almost always come to the winner of the Norris, or that the Conn Smythe trophy winner will more often that not also add the Gretzky, consider this...

   Since the NHL lockout, the winners of the Norris trophy have been:

Lidstrom
Keith
Chara
Lidstrom
Lidstrom
Lidstrom

   The winners of the Bobby Orr trophy, had it existed of course, would have been:

Visnovsky
Green
Green
Lidstrom
Niedermayer
Lidstrom

Only one two occasions would there have been a simultaneous Norris and Orr trophies winner, and that would have been Nicklas Lidstrom.

   As for the Smythe-Gretzky comparsion we had the following Conn Smythe trophy winners

Thomas
Toews
Malkin
Zetterberg
Niedermayer
Ward

Over that same period, Gretzky trophy winners would have been

Krejci
Briere
Malkin
Zetterberg
Alfredsson
Stall

   Again, we see only two instances where there would have been a simultaneous Smythe-Gretzky winner. In this case, Malkin and Zetterberg.

   So how long before the NHL adds some more trophies? Who knows, but the time has come for the Orr and Gretzky awards.