Burns was the only player receiving votes on all 167 ballots and attracted 96 first-place votes for 1,437 voting points, enough to edge two-time Norris Trophy recipient Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators (1,292 points), who finished second in the voting for the second consecutive year. Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning was third (728) in his first year as a finalist.

Burns set franchise records for goals and points by a defenseman for the second consecutive season, posting 29-47--76 to top all NHL blueliners in scoring. He became the first defenseman to record back-to-back 75-point seasons since Brian Leetch achieved the feat with the New York Rangers in 1995-96 and 1996-97. Burns’ 29 goals were 12 more than any other League defenseman and his 21 even-strength tallies were the most by an NHL defender since the Sharks' Sandis Ozolinsh had 22 in 1993-94. His 320 shots on goal – the most among all skaters – was 33% more than the No. 2-ranked blueliner (Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien, 241).

2016-2017 Norris Trophy Voting

Pts. 1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th
1. Brent Burns, SJS 1437 (96-61-10-0-0)
2. Erik Karlsson, OTT 1292 (63-86-9-4-3)
3. Victor Hedman, TBL 728 (3-13-106-21-14)
4. Duncan Keith, CHI 384 (2-4-19-70-31)
5. Ryan Suter, MIN 175 (2-1-9-25-28)
6. Shea Weber, MTL 100 (1-0-6-11-27)
7. Drew Doughty, LAK 51 (0-0-1-10-16)
8. Mark Giordano, CGY 41 (0-0-1-11-3)
9. Dougie Hamilton, CGY 23 (0-0-0-6-5)
10. Justin Schultz, PIT 22 (0-0-2-2-6)
11. Roman Josi, NSH 19 (0-1-0-2-6)
12. Dustin Byfuglien, WPG 15 (0-0-2-1-2)
13. Jared Spurgeon, MIN 14 (0-0-2-1-1)
14. Kevin Shattenkirk, WSH 9 (0-0-0-1-6)
15. Torey Krug, BOS 7 (0-1-0-0-0)
16. Alex Pietrangelo, STL 7 (0-0-0-1-4)
17. Ryan McDonagh, NYR 5 (0-0-0-1-2)
18. Seth Jones, CBJ 4 (0-0-0-0-4)
Zach Werenski, CBJ 4 (0-0-0-0-4)
20. Jaccob Slavin, CAR 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
21. Cam Fowler, ANA 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Dmitry Orlov, WSH 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, SJS 1 (0-0-0-0-1)