News Article: Sens sign forward prospect Josh Norris to an entry level contract

[IamJust0ne]

Fair. How sad is it that we are all looking forward to when we never have watch Tierney play again.

Such mediocrity....

We are? Good to know

 

[Do Make Say Think]

We are? Good to know

Fair. I think most of us are not impressed with Tierney at all.

 

[aragorn]

I'm looking forward to watching Norris play & hoping he turns into a pretty good player for this franchise at either centre or LW. I think he is going to be another good top six player although he could spend most of the yr in Belleville but eventually play some games in Ottawa, probably after the deadline.

 

[aragorn]

I'm looking forward to watching Norris play & hoping he turns into a pretty good player for this franchise at either centre or LW. I think he is going to be another good top six player although he could spend most of the yr in Belleville but eventually play some games in Ottawa, probably after the deadline.

Josh Norris Scouting Report:
Norris has everything you want in a top-six center – size, speed, strength, and the ability to make his linemates better. He’s thick, strong on his skates, plays physical, is matched up against top players and also provides offense on special teams, including on the penalty kill. A playmaker with soft hands and a very hard, accurate shot, Norris plays a heavy game and uses his size and determination to win puck battles. He’s a solid stickhandler and controls the puck in tight spaces, and he settled things down by curling or weaving away from pressure. Playing in traffic isn’t a problem for Norris, and he’s consistently poised on his zone entries. Additionally, he is smart enough to use his physicality without taking unnecessary or emotional penalties. A talented, mature leader with an NHL-ready build.

Josh Norris Scouting Report: 2017 NHL Draft - LWOHP

 

[topshelf15]

I'm looking forward to watching Norris play & hoping he turns into a pretty good player for this franchise at either centre or LW. I think he is going to be another good top six player although he could spend most of the yr in Belleville but eventually play some games in Ottawa, probably after the deadline.

Josh Norris Scouting Report:
Norris has everything you want in a top-six center – size, speed, strength, and the ability to make his linemates better. He’s thick, strong on his skates, plays physical, is matched up against top players and also provides offense on special teams, including on the penalty kill. A playmaker with soft hands and a very hard, accurate shot, Norris plays a heavy game and uses his size and determination to win puck battles. He’s a solid stickhandler and controls the puck in tight spaces, and he settled things down by curling or weaving away from pressure. Playing in traffic isn’t a problem for Norris, and he’s consistently poised on his zone entries. Additionally, he is smart enough to use his physicality without taking unnecessary or emotional penalties. A talented, mature leader with an NHL-ready build.

Josh Norris Scouting Report: 2017 NHL Draft - LWOHP

Sounds like another Colin White,me likey....Two strong two way centers is always a good place to start

 

[TkachukNorris79]

Sounds like another Colin White,me likey....Two strong two way centers is always a good place to start

Agreed. Could be two solid middle 6 centres. Also very flexible in that one can move to LW and one can go to RW if necessary. Still missing that rare 1C, but if we can find one, we're pretty set down the middle for a long time.

 

[aragorn]

Sounds like another Colin White,me likey....Two strong two way centers is always a good place to start

I wonder what that means for Chlapik who could also be a decent centre or LW at the NHL level, have people forgotten about him? I could see Norris moving to LW so that they are able to get him into the top six while Chlapik could play the 3rd line centre role instead but either way Ottawa is improving their strength & size down the middle. Should be a very interesting draft & yr for this club.

Agreed. Could be two solid middle 6 centres. Also very flexible in that one can move to LW and one can go to RW if necessary. Still missing that rare 1C, but if we can find one, we're pretty set down the middle for a long time.

Agreed. I think Brown will be the defacto #1 centre for Ottawa in future, maybe not next yr, but certainly at some point soon. Ottawa could fill a few holes just in this draft alone but they also have two more drafts & more opportunities to add quality players to their org. Of course, I doubt they add just forwards with their first 4 picks.

Norris - Brown - Batherson
Tkachuk - White - Lavoie (2019 draft #19)
Formenton - Chlapik - Leason (2019 draft #32)
Paul - Beecher (2019 draft #44) - Williams (2019 draft #83)

 

[JD1]

Norris - Brown - Batherson
Tkachuk - White - Lavoie (2019 draft #19)
Formenton - Chlapik - Leason (2019 draft #32)
Paul - Beecher (2019 draft #44) - Williams (2019 draft #83)

How far out are you looking with that lineup?

There are several pretty young legit nhl guys you haven't included here.

Pageau, Tierney and Duclair are all decent players.

And you've got a lot of draft picks in there but we've got a handful of guys that are a couple of years into post draft development

 

[aragorn]

How far out are you looking with that lineup?

There are several pretty young legit nhl guys you haven't included here.

Pageau, Tierney and Duclair are all decent players.

And you've got a lot of draft picks in there but we've got a handful of guys that are a couple of years into post draft development

3 to 5 yrs. Pageau could be gone by the trade deadline, Duclair is unknown how long they will hang on to him, not sure he is DJ Smith's kind of player & Tierny IMO could be dealt within a few yrs. I also don't see them hanging on to a bunch of others, but keep in mind that these are the players that I like, who knows what they will actually do.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I liked Norris vs the Jets rookies in Game 1. Look forward to seeing him Game 2. He isn't going to wow you too often but he's steady and smart.
Josh Norris says he’s ready to take the next step with the Senators

If Brown & Paul stay in Belleville .. the BSens will have a glut of players at or that have played C primarily .

Brown
Norris
Chlapik
Paul (plays the wing as well)
Beaudin
Kastelic
Kelly (playing wing in the showcase) I am probably missing someone.

 

[JD1]

Bumping this thread

Norris one point off the rookie scoring lead in the A having played 5 less games.

Any takes from guys that have seen him live a few times this year?

The org has to be super pleased with his progression

 

[coladin]

Bumping this thread

Norris one point off the rookie scoring lead in the A having played 5 less games.

Any takes from guys that have seen him live a few times this year?

The org has to be super pleased with his progression

Ya, absolutely. Can't ask for much more

 

[Micklebot]

Troy Mann talked about him in an interview about two weeks ago on TSN1200, said a few things:
- Defensive game progressing faster than expected.
- They worked and continue to work on getting more structure in his game
- Great speed, great hockey sense, and good shot.

 

[TheDebater]

I understand the two are connected but there is a Chris Tierney thread somewhere around here somewhere, so back on topic:

I have not watched him play enough yet but I am very happy to hear that Norris is stepping up and improving. He was a after all a 1st round pick and regardless what others think of the trade, San Jose still had to give up something they value in order to receive one of the best defenseman of this generation.

Here are the players that were drafted in the later part of round 1 in 2017. If you look at their stats, none of have really stood out or even played enough games to make us question if Norris was a good pick or not.

Edit: sorry working on fixing the image.

Those with a keen eye will notice that Erik Brannstrom was drafted a few spots before Norris and had Ottawa not traded Bowers away, we would have had three prospects drafted in the 1st round that year. Pretty interesting actually.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Not interesting at all considering we traded *****ing Stone for one

 

[Sensmileletsgo]

Not interesting at all considering we traded *****ing Stone for one

edit: lol sorry ReginKarlssonLehner i now see that your talkin bout TheDebator saying it's interesting that 3 1rst round picks from that draft.

 

[Micklebot]

I understand the two are connected but there is a Chris Tierney thread somewhere around here somewhere, so back on topic:

I have not watched him play enough yet but I am very happy to hear that Norris is stepping up and improving. He was a after all a 1st round pick and regardless what others think of the trade, San Jose still had to give up something they value in order to receive one of the best defenseman of this generation.

Here are the players that were drafted in the later part of round 1 in 2017. If you look at their stats, none of have really stood out or even played enough games to make us question if Norris was a good pick or not.

Edit: sorry working on fixing the image.

Those with a keen eye will notice that Erik Brannstrom was drafted a few spots before Norris and had Ottawa not traded Bowers away, we would have had three prospects drafted in the 1st round that year. Pretty interesting actually.

So, 2017 isn't really long enough to judge picks based on their NHL production. At this point, Norris as a pick should probably be evaluated against how his peers have performed in lower leagues.

Last year (injury aside) and this year have been really promising for Norris. Imo, he's done a lot of catching up relative to his cohorts, and even surpassing a number of them.

Player	Pos		League	GP	G	A	Pts	Pts/GP
Cal Foote	D		AHL	24	1	8	9	0.38
Erik Brannstrom	D		AHL	2	0	1	1	0.50
Juuso Valimaki	D	*2018-19	AHL	20	4	10	14	0.70
Timothy Liljegren	D		AHL	21	2	9	11	0.52
Urho Vaakanainen	D		AHL	23	4	6	10	0.43
Josh Norris	C		AHL	23	10	10	20	0.87
Robert Thomas	C		NHL	26	3	8	11	0.42
Filip Chytil	C		AHL	9	3	6	9	1.00
			NHL	20	8	2	10	0.50
Kailer Yamamoto	R		AHL	17	5	6	11	0.65
Pierre-Olivier Joseph	D		AHL	14	1	2	3	0.21
Kristian Vesalainen	L		AHL	26	5	7	12	0.46
Ryan Poehling	C		AHL	25	5	6	11	0.44
Morgan Frost	C		AHL	16	5	7	12	0.75
			NHL	10	2	2	4	0.40
Shane Bowers	C		AHL	15	2	3	5	0.33
Henri Jokiharju	D	*2018-19	AHL	30	2	15	17	0.57
			NHL	31	3	5	8	0.26
Eeli Tolvanen	R		AHL	26	7	6	13	0.50
Klim Kostin	C		AHL	15	3	5	8	0.53

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Norris is starting to look like a good pick for where he went relative to his peers. There's a guy or two that you could argue are outperforming him that were taken after (Chytil and Jokiharju imo), but he certainly doesn't look like a big reach in retrospect. Maybe that changes over time, maybe it doesn't, but as of right now, I'll eat some crow and say I was wrong about him.