{"id":414676,"date":"2026-01-18T18:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/414676\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:52:10","slug":"sabres-joshua-norris-downgraded-to-week-to-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/414676\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres’ Joshua Norris Downgraded To Week-To-Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

1\/18\/26: Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff issued an update<\/a> on Norris\u2019 status today, telling the media that Norris won\u2019t travel with the team on their upcoming flight to Carolina. Ruff said Norris is \u201cnot really recovering the way we had hoped\u201d and downgraded the player\u2019s recovery timeline to week-to-week. Norris\u2019 injury was previously classified as day-to-day.<\/p>\n

1\/15\/26: Yet another injury has come through for one of the league\u2019s most plagued forwards. Buffalo Sabres centerman Joshua Norris<\/a> sustained an upper-body injury on Wednesday that will have him out on a day-to-day basis, per a team announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Norris\u2019 final shift came with six minutes remaining in the second period. He received a few cross-checks to the ribs courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler<\/a>. Norris fought through those checks to deliver the primary assist on Buffalo\u2019s fourth goal of the game. It seems those whacks may have caused more damage than it appears, though, and he will now land on the shelf yet again.<\/p>\n

Norris missed 25 games between October and December while recovering from a different upper-body injury sustained in the Sabres\u2019 season opener. He has had a bad trend of upper-body injuries through the last few years, sustaining an oblique injury that ended his 2024-25 season early and undergoing multiple shoulder surgeries during his six seasons with the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n

While this injury doesn\u2019t seem as severe as some Norris has faced, it will still shorthand the Sabres for the near future. Norris has been an electric part of the offense when healthy. His 17 points in 19 games this season gives him the second-highest scoring pace (0.89 points-per-game) on the team behind Tage Thompson<\/a> (0.98).<\/p>\n

This has been a career-year for Norris on the scoresheet. His scoring pace and 0 plus-minus both rank as career-highs. He has reached those heights despite averaging under 16 minutes of ice time each game \u2013 a career-low, largely thanks to so often needing eased back from injury. His strong shooting and connection with Buffalo\u2019s stars has still earned Norris a spot on the Sabres\u2019 top power-play unit. They will have to replace that hole, in addition to Norris\u2019 spot in the top-six, for their next slate.<\/p>\n

The Sabres have recalled<\/a> top prospect Konsta Helenius<\/a> to attempt to fill the gap. Helenius leads Rochester Americans forwards in scoring with 30 points in 34 games. He is in his second AHL season after spending two years in the Liiga, Finland\u2019s top league. Despite yo-yoing prospects like Isak Rosen<\/a> and Noah Ostlund<\/a> between leagues, the Sabres have opted for a patient approach with Helenius, leaving him a full-time AHL role through the last two seasons. Now, with Norris out, their patience could come to fruition should Helenius make his NHL debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1\/18\/26: Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff issued an update on Norris\u2019 status today, telling the media that Norris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,402,19171,4,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-414676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-joshua-norris","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sabres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115917615838614248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}