Lance Lysowski: Josh Norris is a 'very good player,' but are the Sabres better?
Josh Norris is a top-six center with 20 goals this season, but are the Sabres better after the blockbuster trade?
As the Buffalo Sabres’ playoff odds dwindled, and the problems that have persisted since the start of last season continued, general manager Kevyn Adams posed one question to his coaches and staff.
Josh Norris had 20 goals with the Ottawa Senators at the time of his trade to the Buffalo Sabres. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File) Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
“How do you change the dynamic of the team, and where do you start?” Adams recalled to reporters Friday evening in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A roster that Adams built through blockbuster trades, high draft picks, free-agent signings and expensive, long-term contract extensions endured a 13-game winless streak that dropped the Sabres to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Their team defense and goaltending were wildly inconsistent. Their special teams were detrimental. Lindy Ruff’s hard practices fixed the Sabres’ problematic first periods, but they struggled to protect leads. While Adams and his staff deliberated, other general managers’ inquiries revealed whom on the roster had the value to bring a different type of impact player to Buffalo.
The painstaking process culminated Friday in the Sabres trading a player who was supposed to be a franchise pillar, center Dylan Cozens, along with depth defenseman Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round draft pick to their Atlantic Division foe, the Ottawa Senators, for center Josh Norris and defenseman Jacob Berdnard-Docker.
“We are excited about the return, but these are hard, hard days,” Adams acknowledged.
Adams broke the news to Cozens at the team hotel Friday. It's the second year in a row that the general manager had to pull one of his prominent players into a meeting to tell them of a trade. Last March, the Sabres dealt center Casey Mittelstadt to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Bowen Byram. The move hurt the team in the short-term, but Byram has excelled in Buffalo while Mittelstadt struggled in Denver until his trade Friday to the Boston Bruins.
The latest blockbuster was a shift in Adams’ approach to trying to build a playoff team. He has spent the past four years repeating his ethos that the Sabres were going to move on from anyone who didn’t want to be in Buffalo. They were also going to reward anyone who showed a commitment, desire and ability to help the franchise snap its league-record 13-year playoff drought.
Cozens was the third Sabres player to receive a seven-year contract extension. He signed the $49.7 million pact in February 2023 amidst a breakout 31-goal, 68-point season at 22 years old, and his desire to lead the Sabres to the Stanley Cup Playoffs never relented, even as the trade rumors began in January. The 2019 first-round draft pick held himself accountable and worked relentlessly to try to score the way that he did during Buffalo’s 91-point finish in 2022-23.
The issues that Cozens had while Don Granato was coach continued under Lindy Ruff. Cozens wasn’t carrying the puck with the same confidence and tenacity. He improved at faceoffs and made more of an impact on the forecheck. There wasn’t enough progress in other areas, especially in the defensive zone. His shooting percentage (7.9) is nearly half of what it was (14.7) in 2022-23, when he had his breakout season.
Adams wasn’t eager to trade Cozens, a 24-year-old right-shot center with five years remaining on his contract. The franchise has watched too many talented players like Cozens flourish elsewhere during the drought. The Sabres were willing to listen, though, and requested a significant young player with term on their contract.
Norris’ talent was enough to entice them to part with an alternate captain who didn’t wish to leave.
“Obviously, a player that I have a very, very high opinion of,” Adams said of Norris. “I’ve been watching very closely for a while. He’s a 200-foot center. Very, very talented. Responsible on both sides of the puck. He plays in all situations. ... Just a really good hockey player that is a true center, that we think is going to be a guy that can come in and give us a boost and make the guys around him better. That’s why we targeted him.”
Norris has been an important player for the Senators in their battle for a playoff spot. He has 20 goals with 33 points in 53 games. Their new coach, Travis Green, trusted Norris to be on the power play and penalty kill. He averaged 18:20 of ice time, won 53.8% of his faceoffs and routinely matched up against the opponents best players. Norris is also 25 years old and, like Cozens, under contract for five more seasons. He's the type of player teams usually build around, but availability has been an issue since he scored 31 goals in 2021-22.
Norris had multiple surgeries on his left shoulder, limiting him to only 58 of a possible 164 games between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. Norris is 6-foot-2, but he's not a physical player. His strengths are skating, shooting and playmaking. He's also going to help the Sabres get out of their defensive zone quicker. Ottawa wanted more even-strength production and targeted Cozens for his potential.
Norris has been productive when he's played this season. He was second on the Senators in penalty-kill ice time, and he has 11 power-play goals over the past two seasons. The Sabres will count on Norris to make a similar impact.
Buffalo was fourth in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals entering Friday, but its power play ranks 30th since Jan. 1, 2023. A power play featuring one of the best shooters in the league, Tage Thompson, and one of the best passers, Rasmus Dahlin, should be a strength. The Sabres needed another experienced shooter and playmaker like Norris.
Norris is healthy now, said Adams, and the Sabres' staff combed through the Michigan native's medical history to make sure they were comfortable agreeing to the trade. Similar questions followed Byram before his trade to Buffalo, but he has averaged 23:04 of ice time while appearing in every game this season.
“It’s hard to make sense of when things happen and you ask questions, like, ‘OK, is there a reason a certain injury happened?’" said Adams. "And you do your homework. That’s what we did, but we were certainly comfortable that he’s healthy and this is a very, very good player with a lot of upside and term on his contract, and someone who can grow with this group.”
Norris should benefit from a different role with the Sabres. Only 38.7% of his shifts at 5 on 5 started in the offensive zone, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the Senators were outscored 29-18 in those situations. Ruff will trust Norris against top players - especially if he continues to win at least 53.8% of his faceoffs - but Ryan McLeod and Peyton Krebs are also available to handle those matchups.
Thompson and Jiri Kulich will be in the top six with Norris. McLeod has been the Sabres' best center, and they'll want to sign the pending restricted free agent. Krebs has been excellent defensively and wins faceoffs. And there are several intriguing wingers to put next to those centers.
The Sabres re-signed veteran wingers Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker. JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch are pending restricted free agents who Adams will try to sign this offseason. The coaching staff is still working with Zach Benson and Jack Quinn to develop the first-round picks into consistent NHLers. Isak Rosen is ready for an audition in Buffalo. The fourth line has potential with Krebs, Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Tyson Kozak as options for next season.
And, on defense, the Sabres have Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson and Connor Clifton under contract for next season. Byram is a restricted free agent, and Adams plans on adding a defenseman wants to add a veteran defenseman who complements Power.
More changes are coming this summer, but are the Sabres better after the trade? The second-round draft pick Adams sent to Ottawa is a valuable asset because the 2026 class is supposed to be much deeper than 2025. And they lost toughness by trading Gilbert, who averaged 10:04 of ice time in 25 games. Adams wants to see a "pack mentality," a team-wide toughness from his players, but Ruff will eventually want someone to fill Gilbert's role.
The Senators demanded that the St. Joe's graduate be included in the deal.
Bernard-Docker is only 24 years old and was a first-round draft pick in 2017. His right-handed shot fills the void created by Henri Jokiharju’s trade to Boston, but Bernard-Docker has cleared waivers in the past. He’ll receive an audition with the Sabres as soon as the Alberta native's visa is approved.
The Sabres’ deadline strategy, and possibly Adams’ job status as general manager, will be defined by the latest big swing. Cozens’ trade could be the latest cautionary tale, or it could be a turning point for a franchise that needed to make a significant change. It likely won't be the last one for Adams, either. And the final 21 games may determine which direction he chooses to go.
“Nothing, for me, is off the table,” he said. “We’ll look at everything, the mix. And sometimes you think something on paper works and maybe it doesn’t, so can you change that?”
