ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s been less in-your-face than a year ago, in part because he’s scoring fewer goals and mostly because he’s not taking anybody by surprise.

But if not for Evan Bouchard getting out to a triple-digit scoring pace, we’d likely be talking about the Matthew Schaefer-Quinn Hughes matchup here in the Twin Cities on Thursday night as a matchup between two of the leaders for the Norris Trophy.

Yes, really. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Schaefer already ought to be in that conversation with Hughes, Bouchard, Zach Werenski and Cale Makar when we debate the league’s best defenseman.

Just look at Tuesday night in Nashville. Schaefer played a career-high 32:16. The Islanders’ shots-for percentage was over 20 percent higher in his minutes on the ice than when he was off the ice. He played all five minutes of overtime, becoming the first person to do so since the stat has been tracked. He got one breather during those five minutes, because of a penalty that he drew. He also had an assist.