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Josh Norris, Buffalo Sabres (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

Sabres’ Josh Norris Faces Another Setback in Injury-Plagued Career

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Zach Berta | Last updated Oct 13, 2025 9:05 AM ET

Buffalo Sabres’ forward Josh Norris has added yet another injury to his long list throughout his NHL career, as he suffered it late in the third period in a 4-0 loss vs the New York Rangers on Thursday night after taking a faceoff. According to head coach Lindy Ruff, Norris will miss “significant time” due to this injury, and his timetable remains unknown as the team continues to conduct further tests to determine the extent of it. The worst-case scenario is that he misses the rest of the season, and the best-case scenario I envision is him returning by around the new year. However, we should have more details over the next few days.

Story of Norris’ Career: Injuries

Norris has been nothing but hurt his entire career, and at this point, I feel bad for the guy. He’s such a talented player when he’s healthy and on the ice, but the issue is that he struggles to stay healthy. Over the preseason, he was tied with teammate Tage Thompson for the league lead in points with seven.

Excluding the 2020-21 shortened season, during which Norris played in all 56 games for the Ottawa Senators, he has only played one season with more than 60 games, which was the 2021-22 season, in which he scored a career-high 35 goals and 20 assists for 55 points. Outside of that season, he has only played 50-plus games twice (2023-24, 2024-25). Ideally, you’d like a player of Norris’ caliber to play 70-plus games a season, especially when the Sabres went out and traded Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert, and a 2026 second-round draft pick for Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker during last season’s trade deadline.

As stated above, Norris has had a plethora of injuries that have plagued his career so 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 caused him to miss the last month of the 2024-25 season, along with three shoulder surgeries. He has not been able to establish a proper rhythm for most of his career, as it seems that every time he appears to be healthy, he gets injured right away.

How Does Norris’ Injury Affect the Sabres This Season & Beyond?

The Sabres coming into the season were already dealing with a few injuries to key players, including Owen Power, Michael Kesselring, Zach Benson, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Now adding Norris to the list of injuries, their depth gets even worse. The good news is that the Sabres are expected to have Benson and Power back within the next few games, whereas Luukkonen and Kesselring are likely to be out for at least a couple more weeks.

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, of course, Norris being out long-term, the chemistry those three had together in the preseason is out the window. His absence creates another significant hole in the lineup, forcing Ruff to shuffle lines early in the season, which is never ideal.

Take Norris out of the lineup, and all of a sudden, 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 struggled even to be the fourth-line center. The Sabres’ depth will be tested early in the season. Not only Kulich McLeod and Krebs, but also the rest of the team, are going to have to make up for the scoring that they will miss with Norris out of the lineup.

Norris being out of the lineup is a significant loss for the Sabres, especially when they invested in him to be the team’s long-term first-line center and a key contributor on the roster. Will anyone step up in his absence?