Josh Norris had a setback in his recovery and wasn't at practice Wednesday, but the club still hopes he'll be ready for opening night.
Josh Norris had a setback in his recovery and wasn't at practice Wednesday, but the club still hopes he'll be ready for opening night.
Ottawa Senators head coach DJ Smith announced Wednesday that Josh Norris had suffered a “setback” in his rehab from shoulder surgery eight months ago.
Norris won’t be playing in the Senators’ second-to-last exhibition game against the Winnipeg Jets on October 5th. Smith maintains that the hope is that Norris will play the last exhibition game against the Montreal Canadiens on October 7th.
The team has been playing a rather cryptic game with the media and fans about where Norris is at in his rehabilitation. It’s unclear what two days of rest could mean in Norris’ healing process after suffering a "setback."
Two things are now becoming crystal clear.
Firstly, missing all of training camp, leading up to a make-or-break season, could not have been part of the plan.
Secondly, in the diabolical leverage game with unsigned RFA centre Shane Pinto, the Senators may have just lost the hand on the river card.
It has long been contended that the Senators held all the cards in this negotiation with Pinto. This wasn’t entirely incorrect. Pinto’s only leverage point was to hold out and see if the team was going to suffer in his absence.
The play seemed to be that Stutzle would occupy his regular number one centre position and Norris, after a long rehab, would slot back in the two hole.
Ridly Greig appeared primed to break camp with the team in the three hole in place of Pinto and the Senators would be cap compliant with room to spare. Pinto would eventually come back with his tail between his legs and take what he could get.
Now, with Norris’ return coming more and more in question with each passing exhibition game that he doesn’t play in or practice he doesn’t attend, the Pinto camp now seems to have the leverage.
Greig may be a viable option in the three hole. He is not yet a viable option in the two hole.
Roby Jarventie has been the revelation of the preseason, as a centre no less. Are they going to trust him in the three hole when he has never played centre at the pro level before? Surely, he requires more time in Belleville and he is waiver exempt.
Josh Bailey has a plethora of experience in the league and plays centre. He has been underwhelming this preseason. He may stick as insurance. However, Derick Brassard had a much more impressive camp last year to make the team.
An option that has always existed to make it work cap-wise with Pinto was to put Norris on LTIR until such time as it was conducive to have him rejoin the team.
Others have done it unashamedly. Why shouldn’t the Senators? In this case, unlike others who have done it before them, the injury clearly hasn’t fully healed. He is a legitimate candidate to miss a minimum of 10 games or 24 days of the regular season.
If the Senators are a cap team on day one of the season with Norris on LTIR, they can pool a pro-rated amount of his $7.95 million cap hit. Every 10 games is worth $969,512.00 in LTIR pooling that can used to absorb Pinto’s contract.
Unless a claim is filed to have insurance pay 80% of Norris’ time on LTIR, it’s understood that Dorion would be spending Michael Andlauer’s money by doing this. However, what's the alternative?
It’s maybe time to admit that Norris isn’t ready and also ensure he feels no pressure to return before he's ready.
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