There are many factors that will play out in the Buffalo Saber when the 2025-26 season begins. One of their biggest question marks is the health and performance of Josh Norris, who received Dylan Cozens from the Ottawa Senator on March 7, 2025. So far, his career has been steadily stuck with injuries, while also showing the glory of the same time period. Saber desperately needs a game-changer to strengthen the game and make changes every night during the night, and Norris has the potential to be that player.
Healthy Norris moved the needle of the saber
Norris has had considerable success since becoming a full-time NHL player with the Senator in 2020-21 and has been a very reliable top six scorer with some underrated versatility boots. While he has not yet played a single full NHL season (piquing at 66 games in the 2021-22 season) in the sample size he has provided, he has shown to be a goal scorer first with 91 career goals to his 67 assists, a power play threat (60 of his career 158 points are on the power play), an accurate shooter (18.2% career accuracy), and a steady faceoff man (52.5% career win rate). The sword may not have a big score, but adding someone who can put the puck online and win some draws in each case is priceless for them.
If the Saber can find a way to focus his strength and conditioning department and keep him healthy enough to play 75 games or more, that will bring a different world. Considering that he played the most games in a season (again 66 games in 2021-21), he scored 35 goals, amassed 55 points on that span while contributing 16 strong games, he could definitely contribute similar numbers to this Saber team, which is more competitive and last-team than the Senators that season. The key is to keep him healthy and let him do his best.
Sabre can’t overuse Norris
With the versatility of the versatility of Norris, using him in all cases will be very appealing to head coach Lindy Ruff. As a coach who likes to focus on his defensive front before transitioning to offense, this could lead to Roof overwork as he tries to expand what he can do in these two special teams and still gives him six minutes to play time. More playing time means more chances of his body wear and injury, and this trade-off is not worth it when he offers more offensive players worth more than defensive players. There are already some competent defensive forwards in the roster, including Ryan McLeod, who was just locked up for a long time, hoping it would discourage any idea of overuse of Norris.
Keeping your character focused on winning and becoming an offensive scoring threat should be the task at hand. This doesn’t mean getting him out of his defensive ability, but it does mean that Ruff should focus on deploying Norris in offensive situations. This means using him on the first powerful play unit gives them some new options and using it as a center for working with another player with similar skills in Alex Tuch. Give him a hockey, responsible organizer, who can also score points in the game and do whatever needs to be done, which will only supplement his game and move the needle further for them. The key is to keep him on average ice time in his career, less than 18 minutes a night. Pushing this will be too much until he is obviously healthy and ready for the workload.
Norris needs to run
Often, new players need some kind of adjustment period, but in Norris’ case, he was acquired late last season, had some time spent with the team and participated in some practice. He also spent the entire offseason, trained and regained the game shape and recovered, and there will be an entire training camp and preseason to gain a foothold. While he may only play a few games in the preseason, he will have time to learn the new system, tweak the team and find his own chemistry. After all, he will need to be a player who runs among tough players after the start of the season.
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He will need to generate immediately. Yes, that certainly puts a lot of pressure on the players, but he needs to play alongside other players like Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch. Being the top players of the Sabers, making their offensive allegations will be the best motivation for this team, and getting momentum at the beginning of the season will make a huge difference. If he passively comes out of the gate, looks lost and takes time to find his foothold with the new team, it will be a rough voyage. Norris is the direct difference maker will be the change for Sabers this season, which will be his health level. Time will tell if his recovery is going well and if the Sabre staff can leave him in the roster.
