The Buffalo Sabres will be without Josh Norris for a “significant amount of time,” according to coach Lindy Ruff. Norris, who was the team’s No. 1 center to open the season, went down with an upper-body injury while taking a faceoff in the third period of Buffalo’s season opener. Ruff said the injury is upper body but “nothing related to what he had in the past,” presumably referring to Norris’ history of shoulder problems.

This leaves a big hole in the Sabres’ lineup. The initial plan to replace Norris was to have Jiri Kulich take his place at center on the top line. Kulich handled that role well last season. But this obviously puts stress on the Sabres’ center depth. In a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, Ryan McLeod got more minutes, and Tyson Kozak played fourth-line center while Justin Danforth and Peyton Krebs bumped up to the third line.

Long-term, this doesn’t look like a depth chart that can keep up in a competitive Eastern Conference playoff race. Given Norris’ injury history, the Sabres should have been prepared to move quickly if he got hurt. So, what are their options?

Move Tage Thompson to center

Ruff moved Thompson back to wing last season, and it helped boost his offensive productivity. But he did have a career-best 94-point season as a center in 2022-23. He has improved defensively since then, too. Putting him back on the wing would allow the Sabres to go with a top line of Thompson, Zach Benson (when he’s healthy) or Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch. Thompson and Tuch were a dynamic pair once upon a time. Ruff said Friday that moving Thompson is an option, but he wanted to first try Kulich there.

Call up Noah Ostlund

When Norris was first injured, the Sabres called up Josh Dunne, a fourth-line grinder who put together a solid preseason. But given that Norris’ injury will be longer-term, it would make sense for the Sabres to call up a player with a bit more offensive upside.

Ostlund, the 2022 first-round pick, would fit that description. The lingering question with Ostlund is whether he’s physically prepared to handle the grind of the NHL and stay in the lineup. He already dealt with an injury in the preseason. But his offensive skill has been obvious during his brief NHL auditions. He’s 21, so it’s not as if the Sabres would be rushing him. He could add some playmaking to Buffalo’s middle six.

Call up Konsta Helenius

Helenius is younger than Ostlund, but he’s also a different type of player. His physicality was on display in the preseason. He forechecks hard and plays with a confidence and tenacity you don’t always see from a 19-year-old. Letting him transition to the NHL on the wing might be best, but the organization views him as a true center. Based on how he looked in the preseason, Helenius might be ready to handle a third-line role.

“Every young kid comes in the league and wants to score and wants to get a bunch of points,” Rochester Americans coach Michael Leone said. “But Konsta really worked hard, and we were hard on him in the areas away from the puck and the details in his game, whether it’s tracking back in our zone and being responsible in our own end, and then giving him the freedom offensively because he is really gifted to make plays. He carried that over and had a great summer, and I thought he was great in preseason, had a huge impact on all of the games.”

The trade market

It’s tough to tell what exactly the trade market might look like this early in the season. After all, the Sabres aren’t the only team that could be in the market for center help. It’s not clear which teams will be sellers at this point. But one name that stands out as a potential trade target is Rickard Rakell from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Though he has played a lot of wing in his career, Rakell can play center and could be a decent middle-six player. Even if he played wing, he would add scoring pop to Buffalo’s lineup. He had career highs with 35 goals and 35 assists last season. He also had 19 power-play points, so he could help there. Rakell’s flexibility to play center and wing would give Ruff some lineup options, too. And it helps that Rakell has a 52 percent on-ice expected goals share for his career, so he can be counted on defensively.

Rakell and Pittsburgh winger Bryan Rust have been in trade speculation for a while as the Penguins start to execute a youth movement. But Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas doesn’t seem to be in a rush to move them. Rakell, 32, has two years left on his contract after this one, at a very reasonable $5 million cap hit. But that contract has an eight-team no-trade list, which could present a problem.

Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said one of the lessons he learned from last season is that he should have acted quicker and made a trade during the team’s December losing streak. Considering he is in his sixth season on the job and the final season of his contract, he should be urgently trying to upgrade this lineup. But other NHL general managers might not be eager to help him out this early in the season.