Josh Norris of the Buffalo Sabers has done just that added another injury on his long list during his NHL career, as he suffered a 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers on a faceoff late in the third period on Thursday night. According to head coach Lindy Ruff, Norris will miss “significant time” with this injury, and his timetable remains unknown as the team continues to conduct further testing to determine its extent. The worst case scenario is that he misses the rest of the season, and the best case scenario I envision is that he returns around the new year. However, we should have more details in the coming days.
Story of Norris’ career: injuries
Norris has done nothing but hurt his entire career, and at this point I feel sorry for the man. He’s such a talented player when he’s healthy and on the ice, but the problem is he’s struggled to stay healthy. During the preseason, he was tied with teammate Tage Thompson for the league lead in points with seven.
With the exception of the shortened 2020-21 season, in which Norris played in all 56 games for the Ottawa Senators, he has only played one season with more than 60 games, the 2021-22 season, in which he scored a career-high 35 goals and 20 assists for 55 points. Outside of that season, he only played more than 50 games twice (2023-24, 2024-25). Ideally, you would want a player of Norris’s caliber to play more than seventy games per season, especially if the Sabers went out and traded Dylan CozensDennis Gilbert, and a 2026 second-round draft pick for Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker at last season’s trade deadline.
As mentioned above, Norris has had a plethora of injuries that have plagued his career thus far. That includes four shoulder injuries (2021-22, 2022-23, twice and the 2023-24 season), as well as five upper-body injuries, including an oblique injury that forced him to miss the final month of the 2024-25 season, along with three shoulder surgeries. He hasn’t been able to get into a good rhythm for most of his career because it seems like every time he seems healthy, he immediately gets injured.
How will Norris’ injury impact the Sabers this season and beyond?
The Sabers entering the season were already dealing with some injuries to key players, including Owen Power, Michael Kesselring, Zach Benson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. With Norris added to the injured list, its depth becomes even worse. The good news is that the Sabers are expected to have Benson and Power back within the next few games, while Luukkonen and Kesselring will likely be out for at least a few more weeks.
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Norris was expected to be the team’s first-line center with Benson on his left and Thompson on his right, but with Benson coming back from his injury and Norris of course out long-term, the chemistry these three had together in preseason is no longer possible. His absence leaves another significant hole in the lineup, forcing Ruff to switch lines early in the season, which is never ideal.
Take Norris out of the lineup and suddenly a second-year player in Jiri Kulich is the team’s first-line center, Ryan McLeod is the second-line center and Peyton Krebs is the third-line center, who has even struggled to become the fourth-line center. The The Sabres’ depth will be tested early in season. Not only Kulich McLeod and Krebs, but the rest of the team will have to make up for the scoring they will miss with Norris out of the lineup.
Not having Norris in the lineup is a significant loss for the Sabres, especially since they invested in him to be the team’s first-line center long-term and a key contributor to the roster. Will anyone step up in his absence?
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