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Posted
18 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I've been watching Cozens lately to try to figure him out. I think ultimately his decision making is too slow. Whether he's hesitating out of a lack of confidence or he just thinks slow is hard to say but when he gets the puck he doesn't react and act instinctively, there's delays and pauses and it allows him to be defended easily. 

I think he could thrive on a slower more structured type of team but he might just be incapable of playing well in this sort of up tempo type of thing we seem to want to do in Buffalo. the cliche "not a good fit" would seem to apply. So unless we change our style (unlikely) it's probably best to trade him. 

So Ruff is playing the same style as Granato?  Is that what you see?  I don’t see that.  

I do see that Cozens is thinking and is not an instinctive player right now.  I see that he takes on a lot, and that pressure is a problem for him.    He can read and hear the news - the expectations for 7 years and $7 million.   Then he gets a A.  The team disappoints, he disappoints, and everything gets worse. 

For Dylan Cozens (and several other young Sabres), the failure of Kevyn Adams’ flawed rebuild is proving to be too much, too soon.  Judging his current game Cozens is a 3rd line winger with a 2nd line ceiling, yet he is playing 1C, 2C, and on PP2.   That is the way the roster is constructed.  

He will get blamed, and traded, and he will eventually have a good career somewhere else.  

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Posted
1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

So Ruff is playing the same style as Granato?  Is that what you see?  I don’t see that.  

I do see that Cozens is thinking and is not an instinctive player right now.  I see that he takes on a lot, and that pressure is a problem for him.    He can read and hear the news - the expectations for 7 years and $7 million.   Then he gets a A.  The team disappoints, he disappoints, and everything gets worse. 

For Dylan Cozens (and several other young Sabres), the failure of Kevyn Adams’ flawed rebuild is proving to be too much, too soon.  Judging his current game Cozens is a 3rd line winger with a 2nd line ceiling, yet he is playing 1C, 2C, and on PP2.   That is the way the roster is constructed.  

He will get blamed, and traded, and he will eventually have a good career somewhere else.  

I believe that wing is the best spot for him. He lacks the instinctiveness (my opinion) to play to his best level as a second-line center.  He has thrived in the international tournaments playing wing with quality centers. As you point, it is evident that his play and development have been crimped by the stress he is placing on himself. 

My fear is if dealt he will thrive with a team/organization that has a clue as to how to put players in position to grow and succeed. The situation in Buffalo is too dysfunctional for talented players to develop as well as they should. The owner by his irrational hires and tinkering has destroyed this once proud franchise and has severely eroded this once flourishing fanbase to the point of submission. Terry Pegula is the Danny Snyder of hockey without the sleazy personal behavior. This silent and clueless billionaire lacks the self-awareness to recognize what he has done. 

Posted

I do think he can be acceptable at wing.  Take him off the PP and PK, give him 2nd or 3rd line wing minutes, make sure you put him with a Center who is good at carrying the puck into the zone. By doing all those things, you don't put Cozens in any situation he's not good at.   You aren't going to get a player this is worth $7m per year, but you might get a winger who scores, on average 20-25 goals and doesn't hurt you away from the puck as much as he does at Center.  You are getting a $5m player, but paying for a $7m one...but at least he won't be hurting you.

There is someone in this organization that will not allow that move to happen. Someone here wants him at Center, on PP and PK, and on the ice at the end of games.  Is it every coach he's ever had? Is it Adams? Is it Pegula?  I don't know. All I am convince of now is that the move to wing and off the PP is not happening in this organization.

The best thing for him, and the Sabres, is to move him and let him have that opportunity someplace else. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

So Ruff is playing the same style as Granato?  Is that what you see?  I don’t see that.  

I do see that Cozens is thinking and is not an instinctive player right now.  I see that he takes on a lot, and that pressure is a problem for him.    He can read and hear the news - the expectations for 7 years and $7 million.   Then he gets a A.  The team disappoints, he disappoints, and everything gets worse. 

For Dylan Cozens (and several other young Sabres), the failure of Kevyn Adams’ flawed rebuild is proving to be too much, too soon.  Judging his current game Cozens is a 3rd line winger with a 2nd line ceiling, yet he is playing 1C, 2C, and on PP2.   That is the way the roster is constructed.  

He will get blamed, and traded, and he will eventually have a good career somewhere else.  

I didn't say they play the same style. Not sure where you got that from but doesn't matter.

The hesitation in Cozens is definitely there and I said we can argue over the cause but he's hesitating all the same. Maybe another element is too many development years under Granato and he is having trouble doing X after years of Y type thing. That could be part of it. 

There's absolutely no question we have mismanaged assets and developed young players poorly. Always too much too soon and we "break" many of them and then somebody else fixes some of them after we ditch them or they move on. Lack of veteran leadership, constant changes, it's a mess. The young players we have should be better than they are. 

Posted

Cozens needs to move to wing asap. When he plays in the world championships he always plays wing and he plays great. He never developed a complete game to play center in the top 6. That's what happens when to don't properly develop prospects and rush them to the NHL. Tage has the same problems but at least he scores.

If I remember correctly Reinhart struggled at center early in his career before moving to wing and then in 2021 he needed to go back to center because they had nobody left and he finally excelled due to his development.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)
18 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Last 10 games

Ryan McLeod: 7g, 2a, +8

Dylan Cozens: 1g, 4a, +2

 

Full season

Ryan McLeod: 52gp, 14g, 16a, +13

Dylan Cozens: 55gp, 11g, 16a, -16

McLeod is clearly the better overall player now.  And he does have nice hands on some of his goals. I'd like to experiment and see McLeod take Cozens spot on the Powerplay, see how it goes.

Overall, Cozens hasn't been that  'bad' to me the last 5-10 games.  Now, is that because we don't notice the bad plays because we are happy with winning 5 of the last 6? or is the fact they have won 5 of the last 6 in large part because he's not making as many dumb plays?

Last night, for one game, Cozens underlying metrics/analytics were REALLY good....was that a function of him just playing with a motivated Greenway on his line?

The Nashville game, he played with Krebs, and Cozens looked to play some wing with Krebs often patrolling the center of the ice, and their metrics were also really good.

Most of the previous 4-5 games before that, Cozens was centering Zucker and Tuch, and some games the analytics were good, some games they weren't.

Maybe, MAYBE his play without the puck is turning the corner?  That would be a start of something, but at the same time, does him playing better without the puck mean his offense goes away?

I mentioned his underlying defensive analytics and his play without the puck show a  definite improvement over the last 10 games. But at the same time, is offense has basically vanished.  Is it a choice where he gives you one or the other.... but not both?  

Edited by mjd1001
Posted
On 1/26/2025 at 1:24 PM, Pimlach said:

He will get blamed, and traded, and he will eventually have a good career somewhere else.  

I honestly don’t think Adams will trade him for fear of him blossoming somewhere else. 

Posted
On 1/26/2025 at 12:39 PM, JohnC said:

I believe that wing is the best spot for him. He lacks the instinctiveness (my opinion) to play to his best level as a second-line center.  He has thrived in the international tournaments playing wing with quality centers. As you point, it is evident that his play and development have been crimped by the stress he is placing on himself. 

My fear is if dealt he will thrive with a team/organization that has a clue as to how to put players in position to grow and succeed. The situation in Buffalo is too dysfunctional for talented players to develop as well as they should. The owner by his irrational hires and tinkering has destroyed this once proud franchise and has severely eroded this once flourishing fanbase to the point of submission. Terry Pegula is the Danny Snyder of hockey without the sleazy personal behavior. This silent and clueless billionaire lacks the self-awareness to recognize what he has done. 

To the bold ... so? Would you rather have him here, floundering in a situation that is not right for him and dragging the team down, or move on and try to make the team better? 

Far more successful organizations that this one have moved on from far better players than Cozens when their performance was not what it needed to be.

For the record, I blame the contract for part of it - putting too much pressure on himself. If I recall correctly, Ryan Miller used a sports psychologist at points in his career ... maybe Ryan could share the number? Or perhaps Rasmus could earn that "C" on his chest and tell Dylan that story about when he (Ras) realized he needed to stop playing the game for other people and just go out be the best Dahlin he could be.

Posted
17 minutes ago, ska-T Palmtown said:

To the bold ... so? Would you rather have him here, floundering in a situation that is not right for him and dragging the team down, or move on and try to make the team better? 

Far more successful organizations that this one have moved on from far better players than Cozens when their performance was not what it needed to be.

For the record, I blame the contract for part of it - putting too much pressure on himself. If I recall correctly, Ryan Miller used a sports psychologist at points in his career ... maybe Ryan could share the number? Or perhaps Rasmus could earn that "C" on his chest and tell Dylan that story about when he (Ras) realized he needed to stop playing the game for other people and just go out be the best Dahlin he could be.

As I have stated in other posts, Cozens is being mishandled. He should be playing wing instead of center. In the international tournaments, when placed on wing with talented centers, he has thrived.  

You make an excellent point and observation that Cozens is putting too much pressure on himself. You can see it in his play and reactions to mishaps. My recommendation is to put him on wing where there is more basic play and less thinking.

Posted
21 minutes ago, JohnC said:

As I have stated in other posts, Cozens is being mishandled. He should be playing wing instead of center. In the international tournaments, when placed on wing with talented centers, he has thrived.  

You make an excellent point and observation that Cozens is putting too much pressure on himself. You can see it in his play and reactions to mishaps. My recommendation is to put him on wing where there is more basic play and less thinking.

But we don't have a center to lift him up. Maybe if you get lucky and win the lottery you can get Misa but even still that's 2yrs away. 

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

But we don't have a center to lift him up. Maybe if you get lucky and win the lottery you can get Misa but even still that's 2yrs away. 

Stick Cozens with Krebs as his center, 3rd line minutes, 16-17 minutes per game. Its close to what he is getting already.  And, although their ice time this season has been limited, Cozens and Krebs had pretty good numbers together a couple games ago when they were linemates (I think Cozens actually did play mostly wing with Krebs at center that game.)

Edited by mjd1001
Posted
4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

But we don't have a center to lift him up. Maybe if you get lucky and win the lottery you can get Misa but even still that's 2yrs away. 

I agree with you that we don't currently have the center to properly place Cozens. That's one of the reasons why I had reservations about the Mitts deal. (However, I do like Byram.) Our roster is miscast. My recommendation would be to deal Byram plus assets (draft picks and prospects) and get the caliber of center to move Cozens to the wing. How do you do that when your GM is a dullard and lacks the imagination to make such a deal? 

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