Josh Norris issues a challenge to himself, as it relates to his history with injuries.
Don’t think about it.
Norris looks to rebound from several injury-plagued seasons in Ottawa to become a top-line center with the Buffalo Sabres. He is a proven goal-scorer, but injuries over the course of his career have limited him to no more than 66 games a season.
Now, he could also have a shot to be at his healthiest in his NHL career, a foundation that he can set in training camp.
There’s no secret formula to that: Stay up on sleep habits. Stay on top of nutrition. Stay out of harm’s way.
“Stay healthy,” Norris said. “I’ve had my fair share of injuries the last few years, and hopefully, I’ve got that out of the way. It’s in the past. I haven’t really thought at all about that. It’s a new year. I’m looking forward to being a big contributor.”
Norris has been centering the Sabres’ top line with Zach Benson at left wing and Tage Thompson at right wing. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff believes Norris, 26, will be a key not just in scoring goals but also in taking faceoffs, particularly on the power play, and on special teams.
“You watch him skate and you go, ‘He’s an incredible skater,’ and we didn’t even get to see him healthy last year,” Ruff said of Norris, who has a career faceoff percentage of 52.5. “I look at him, we’ve got a guy that can be our best two-way center, a guy that can take key draws. If he can be that guy on the power play to win that faceoff, our faceoff percentage on the power play was 44%, and it’s a big deal if you can win the opening faceoff on the power play.
The Buffalo Sabres finished training camp and opened the 2024-25 season in Europe. This year, they’re back to a full training camp in Western New York, which has its benefits.
“Penalty killing, he can be a tough guy. Power play, he can be a tough guy. He’s an elite skater.
Norris’ injury issues, though, could be considered either a case history or an asterisk. He’s had three surgeries on his left shoulder since 2019, including the most recent after an injury in February 2024 with the Senators. He underwent season-ending surgery the next month, which required a recovery period of four to six months.
“The last surgery I had was to put some screws in it,” Norris said in November 2024. “I just feel more comfortable with that.”
Still, in spite of the injuries, he scored a career-best 35 goals with the Senators in 2021-22. He had two goals and an assist in eight games in 2022-23. Norris also was limited then by an early-season shoulder injury and subsequent surgery after his season ended that January.
He scored 16 goals in 50 games in 2023-24. Last season, he scored 20 goals in 53 games with Ottawa and scored his first goal in his third game with the Sabres, a 7-3 loss March 12 at Detroit. That was five days after he joined the Sabres with Jacob Bernard-Docker as part of a trade that sent Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round draft pick to the Senators.
In his third game with the Sabres, the shoulder wasn’t a concern. Something else was. Norris aggravated an oblique injury in March that he sustained earlier in the season with the Senators.
Norris did not undergo surgery but decided to sit out the remainder of the season to allow the injury to heal.
The Sabres are expecting a better all-around game from Power this year as he matures into his fourth full NHL season at age 23, and because of the acquisition of his new partner Michael Kesselring acquired from Utah.
“With the amount of time that I’ve missed over the last three or four years, I still really feel that I have a lot to prove,” said Norris, who has scored 91 goals and 67 assists in 239 NHL games since he joined the Senators at the end of February 2020, following his second season at the University of Michigan. “Just to prove it to myself. That’s the thing I’m most excited about, individually.”
He said last week that this is the first time in the last three years he’s had a full summer to train and prepare for a season, without having to worry about any sort of major injury or recovery.
“It’s nice just to go into the summer and have a plan and just stick to it,” said Norris, who is from Oxford, Michigan. “I feel really good, had a great summer.
“It was a little weird and it was different, but I felt great. You kind of forget what it’s like to have a fully healthy summer and not have to worry about anything, physically.”
Norris enters his seventh professional NHL season and isn’t looking in the rearview mirror at his injury history. He’s looking ahead at where he can help the Sabres grow, whether it’s on the power play, as a faceoff specialist or evolving as a two-way player. He won’t even look back at those three games he played in March with the Sabres.
“It’s a fully new season,” Norris said. “The guys look good. I’m ready to work and compete.”
“I’m ready to go.”
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Rachel Lenzi
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