This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Josh Norris
Buffalo Sabres Center
21 goals in 56 games at a 21.9 per cent rate, on shoulders that have now ended four seasons early.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | OTT | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.0 | 17:55 |
| 2020-21 | OTT | 56 | 17 | 18 | 35 | -12 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 96 | 17.7 | 16:28 |
| 2021-22 | OTT | 66 | 35 | 20 | 55 | -7 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 172 | 20.3 | 18:35 |
| 2022-23 | OTT | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 13.3 | 17:59 |
| 2023-24 | OTT | 50 | 16 | 14 | 30 | -6 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 115 | 13.9 | 17:38 |
| 2024-25 | OTT/BUF | 56 | 21 | 14 | 35 | -6 | 44 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 96 | 21.9 | 18:21 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 239 | 91 | 67 | 158 | -30 | 101 | 33 | 3 | 18 | 503 | 18.1 | 17:48 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
21 goals and 14 assists in 56 games for 35 points, minus-6, on 18:21 a night between Ottawa and Buffalo, with 6 on the power play and 3 shorthanded.
21.9 per cent shooting on 96 shots, which is the highest rate of any player in this edition with more than 50 attempts. 49 per cent of his shots came from inside 20 feet, so the locations are excellent — and 21.9 per cent is still not a thing anybody sustains.
The Finesse Game
A genuine scorer’s release and an excellent sense of when to leave the puck-carrier and get to the slot. He does not create his own offence — he arrives at it — and 14 assists in 56 games is the honest measure of what he makes for other people.
The faceoff work is good and the shot from the top of the crease is the whole of the offensive value. When the puck arrives, he scores; when it does not, he is a quiet 18-minute centre.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 196, and he is willing without being heavy. He goes to the net front, takes punishment there, and does not initiate anywhere else.
44 penalty minutes in 56 games is a high rate and out of character. The real physical question is the shoulders: he has had multiple surgeries, has played more than 60 games twice in six seasons, and each absence has been long.
The Intangibles
Traded for Dylan Cozens in a swap of two centres whose careers had stalled, which is an unusual trade and a defensible one for both clubs.
Buffalo is buying a 30-goal centre who is available for two-thirds of a season. That is a reasonable thing to buy at the price. It is not a thing to build a top six around, and the shooting rate means the goal total will look worse before it looks better.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- slot-man· shoots from where goals are scored
64.3% of his attempts in the slot, 91st percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.69) · 44% keep it
- clutch· scored his goals when the game was still live
4 of his 21 goals late or in overtime, 92nd percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure barely repeats (0.06) · 10% keep it
“He does not create his own offence — he arrives at it — and 14 assists in 56 games is the honest measure of what he makes for other people.”
“The faceoff work is good and the shot from the top of the crease is the whole of the offensive value.”
“He goes to the net front, takes punishment there, and does not initiate anywhere else.”
“6-2 and 196, and he is willing without being heavy. He goes to the net front, takes punishment there, and does not initiate anywhere else.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 693 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46.3%
- 22nd pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.8%
- 32nd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 21 for, 33 against. Expected: 24.1 and 27.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 44 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 75 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2024-25 · 56 games
- Top speed
- 23.8 mph
- 98th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 3.11 a game
- Distance
- 2.85 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 86.8 mph
- 58th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.2
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 83.9
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2024-25 with OTT · 652 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- BUF took 47.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.3% — 1.6 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 693 minutes at five-on-five — 27th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drake Batherson | 46.3% | 46.2% | 51.3% |
| Jake Sanderson | 49.8% | 44.3% | 52.1% |
| Thomas Chabot | 48.5% | 44.9% | 53.5% |
46.3% together, 46.2% for him apart and 51.3% for Batherson apart. Batherson was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
140 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 21 of them goals. His median goal came from 19 feet. 49% of his shots came from inside twenty feet.