I found PD’s response to Norris fairly passive.... we will try to sign him to play in Belleville. Not exactly a full endorsement to a D+2 first round pic. A US kid debating signing for Canada’s weakest team or waiting it out.
I was hoping for something along the lines of “we want him to come to camp and battle for a C or WING position”.
He was only drafted in 2017.
It's no different than expecting Brown or Batherson to have gone to Belleville to start this season. It would be abnormal if Norris earned a spot on the NHL roster right out of camp.
I wouldn't be worried about him not signing. If Dorion is talking about it, he's probably had some communication with Norris' representation ("family adviser"). There would have been no rush to get a deal done before the summer because if Norris signed an 18-19 ELC, it would have slid anyways. There'd be no point in doing that and it would have wasted a contract spot (we are at 50/50 right now). So for him, other than getting his signing bonus a few months earlier, it would be mostly the same as signing in the summer.
Typically a player in Norris' situation might sign an ELC dated for the next season a few months early, and in conjunction with that they would sign an ATO that would allow them to join the AHL for the remainder of the current season. The reason they do this is because their ELC would slide to the next season regardless if they signed it for the current season, and signing an ELC for the current season would void their eligibility to play pro hockey in the AHL since the AHL roster eligibility date (around the NHL TDL) has already passed. They only sign the ATO if the team gives them their post-dated ELC because the ATO voids their college eligibility, so they obviously don't want to turn around a month later and have the team change their mind about the ELC. The thing with Norris is that he's hurt, so that is also off the table.
With other stuff going on, there's no real reason to expect Norris' ELC to have been signed this season. I have no worries about him signing this summer, especially if management is already talking about it. The Sens are a good spot for him because there will be lots of opportunity to crack the NHL earlier on. As we already know, he also has a previous relationship with a lot of the players on the team (did you guys hear him and Tkachuk are BFFs?)
In a worst case scenario where he doesn't sign, we'd get a 2nd round pick as compensation. By my count, it would be 47th overall the year that we would lose his rights. I doubt it'll come to that, but it's not the same as the Fox situation where Carolina will only get something if they can negotiate a trade return through trading Fox to another team. (See Vesey from NSH to BUF)