When Josh Norris went down in a collision behind the net during a recent game in Nashville, Ottawa Senators fans immediately began fearing the worst – that he’d injured that left shoulder again.
Their fears were well-founded.
Norris had surgery last week and the club announced on Monday he will be gone for the season. That left shoulder has been injured or tweaked several times now, sometimes treated with rehab, sometimes with surgery.
Head coach Jacques Martin says the hope is that Norris will be ready for training camp,
“He should be able to have enough time to be able to start at training camp,” Martin told the media after Monday practice. “It gives him some time to rehabilitate properly for strength and everything. So what you’re looking at is a fresh start next year.”
Martin took the glass half full approach, but it should be noted that Norris wasn’t ready to start this season and his surgery last year was performed in February, a month earlier than this year’s operation.
Norris wasn’t quite the same effective player this season, and while it’s completely speculation, perhaps it was partially due to a lack of confidence in the sturdiness of the shoulder, and a fear of being back where he is now, out of the lineup and facing a long recovery.
This was Norris’s third surgery on the shoulder and his latest injury occurred during a game in Nashville on February 27th. Norris chased Predators forward Cole Smith behind the Ottawa net, reaching in with his stick, held by his left hand. Protecting the puck, Smith then cut Norris off, sending him into the back of the cage.
It’s hard to say if Norris jammed the arm on Smith, or hurt himself when he collided with the net. Norris stayed down for a moment, then got up and skated off the ice, favouring his left arm.
Norris has six years left on his contract, and just completed the two least expensive seasons of his eight year deal with a salary of $5 million last year and $6.5 million this year. His pay now bumps to $9.5 million for each of the next three seasons.
As Norris’s 2023-24 NHL season comes to a close, he finishes with 16 goals and 30 points in 50 games.
