The Buffalo Sabres lack high-end star power outside of forward Tage Thompson and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, so it was surprising when the franchise landed three players on ESPN's annual ranking of the NHL's top 100 players.
The list, which was released Tuesday amid the early stages of the 2025-26 season, featured Thompson at No. 30 and Dahlin at No. 60, which is far too low. The Sabres captain was ranked No. 37 last season and probably deserved to move up, not down.
Regardless, the biggest shock was seeing one more Buffalo player crack the top 100: oft-injured center Josh Norris at No. 82. Norris is expected to miss at least eight weeks while recovering from a lower-body injury suffered in the team's season-opening loss to the New York Rangers.
Buffalo Sabres' Josh Norris ranked one of the NHL's best 100 players by ESPN
Norris entered the season with high expectations as he took over as the Sabres' first-line center, but there was obvious risk given his history of injuries, including significant setbacks. The 26-year-old Michigan native was confident he was going to leave the injury-prone label in the past, though.
Unfortunately for Buffalo, that wasn't the case as he'll now be sidelined until at least early January.
It's fair to question whether Norris warranted a spot in the top 100 even before the injury. He's never scored more than 55 points in a season (2021-22 with the Ottawa Senators) and he tallied a modest 35 points last year between his time in Ottawa and Buffalo.
Sure, his ample upside has been on display at times, most notably when he netted 35 goals for the Sens in his second full NHL campaign. That was four years ago, however, and he's never come close to matching that type of output again.
Norris also looked potentially primed for a bounce-back season throughout a strong training camp and preseason, but those promising signs often don't carry over to the real games.
So, it's hard to understand how the center, who was an honorable mention on ESPN's list last year, jumped into the top 100 for the current campaign.
His absence is already having a trickle-down effect on the Sabres, who shifted Thompson back to center to take some pressure off Jiri Kulich and Ryan McLeod, Buffalo's middle-six centers who've struggled during the team's 0-3-0 start to the season.
The team's injury woes are having a major impact, and they're threatening to play a key role in the team digging a hole it'll struggle to get out of to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Finding a way to generate more offense, which may require calling up some prized prospects from the AHL's Rochester Americans, will be a challenge until Norris returns.
The Sabres will definitely need him to play at a top-100 level when he does rejoin the lineup, but it's fair to wonder whether it may already be too late by that point.