Report: Red Wings Trade for Sabres' Dylan Cozens 'Was Close' Before Roster Freeze

[mjd1001]

Speaking on Friday's episode of the "32 Thoughts" podcast, Friedman confirmed that the Sabres and Red Wings were deep in discussions leading up to the NHL’s holiday trade freeze in December.

“There’s definitely not a lot that gets out of Detroit, and there’s not very much that gets out of Buffalo,” Friedman said. “But finally, it got coughed up to me that they believe the Red Wings were looking at Cozens. And it fits. 

”I think there’s a lot of people looking at Cozens. And I will say this, there was a time that a couple people said to me they thought it was close.”

NHL insider Chris Johnston noted on Dec. 17 that Buffalo could be hesitant to move young players with upside after some of their recent moves backfired. 

 

full article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/red-wings-trade-for-sabres-dylan-cozens-was-close-before-roster-freeze/ar-BB1rhJw9?ocid=BingNewsSerp

[LabattBlue]

“Trades are hard to complete”.
 

Who was it that quote is attributed to?

[Flashsabre]

Please don’t let Adams make any moves. Fire him and bring someone knowledgeable in.

This is Buffalo though so they will announce Adam’s 3 year extension Monday morning

[Weave]

The hell would Detroit have that we would have interest in?

Please don’t let it be picks or prospects.  We’ve been kicking the can down the road for over a decade.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Adams was holding out for an extra 3rd in 2033 and wouldn't complete the deal without it.

Edited Sunday at 04:20 AM by GASabresIUFAN

[Archie Lee]

It only makes sense to me if the Sabres have determined they won’t get enough out of Cozens to warrant his salary. Then a trade for a useful and lower paid middle-six player (Compher, Copp) and a prospect maybe makes sense. I’m not saying I like it  But I can see the logic. This would especially be true if we have an internal cap and the gap in salary between Cozens and a player like Compher, allows us to keep Zucker. 

[LGR4GM]

24 minutes ago, Weave said:

The hell would Detroit have that we would have interest in?

Please don’t let it be picks or prospects.  We’ve been kicking the can down the road for over a decade.

Dylan Larkin?

[Weave]

59 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Dylan Larkin?

That doesn’t make sense to me.  He’s their 1C.

[Crusader1969]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Dylan Larkin?

For Cozens? If the issue was Tage couldn't take face offs, wouldn't Larkin be able to do that as well as Cozens does?

Raymond?  I doubt it's either of their 2 young dmen 

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

It only makes sense to me if the Sabres have determined they won’t get enough out of Cozens to warrant his salary. Then a trade for a useful and lower paid middle-six player (Compher, Copp) and a prospect maybe makes sense. I’m not saying I like it  But I can see the logic. This would especially be true if we have an internal cap and the gap in salary between Cozens and a player like Compher, allows us to keep Zucker. 

Rather keep Cozens then bail out a division rival of a badish contract only for Cozens to find God and play amazing for them.

[PerreaultForever]

You're making the assumption that Adams would do a logical thing and trade for a player(s) that would help this team immediately. 

Wouldn't shock me in the least if they've already concluded this isn't the year and it'll be next year or the next next year and they would trade for Kasper or Danielson or some sort of package around one or more of them. Dumb? Yes. But it's Adams and Pegula. It's what they do. 

[Broken Ankles]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

The hell would Detroit have that we would have interest in?

Please don’t let it be picks or prospects.  We’ve been kicking the can down the road for over a decade.

Edvinsson? Big, left handed defenseman. Can never have too many.  And, they get younger.  Keeps the average age of the blue line below 25. Still on his ELC.  Saves T Pegs $3.5M this season.  Checks all the boxes. 

 

[Mr. Allen]

Wasn’t there a report we really wanted Kasper but settled for Savoie? 

[Brawndo]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

The hell would Detroit have that we would have interest in?

Please don’t let it be picks or prospects.  We’ve been kicking the can down the road for over a decade.

Not answer you would even want to consider but I believe it’s Marco Kasper. When Ottawa agreed to the Matt Murray Deal and the swapping of draft picks in the first round in 2022, he was the player they were going to take a seventh overall. 
 

Whether he would have been the centerpiece for the return for the Sabres in a Cozens Trade is unknown. JT Compher reportedly did say he would consider going to teams that are not necessarily on other players radar. 
 

Cozens for Kasper and Compher maybe? 
 

I believe Detroit broke off negotiations to give McLelland a chance to assess the Red Wings before any moves are made 

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

The hell would Detroit have that we would have interest in?

Please don’t let it be picks or prospects.  We’ve been kicking the can down the road for over a decade.

Kasper.

18 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

Edvinsson? Big, left handed defenseman. Can never have too many.  And, they get younger.  Keeps the average age of the blue line below 25. Still on his ELC.  Saves T Pegs $3.5M this season.  Checks all the boxes. 

Edvinsson, Power, Dahlin, Byram, R Johnson and Samuelsson. Now that's a d-corps. 😇

11 minutes ago, Mr. Allen said:

Wasn’t there a report we really wanted Kasper but settled for Savoie? 

This is the way.

[Brawndo]

18 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Rather keep Cozens then bail out a division rival of a badish contract only for Cozens to find God and play amazing for them.

If you compare Cozens to Eichel, Reinhart or ROR Metrics before the latter three were moved, they were light years ahead of where Cozens is. I do not see him making a huge impact like the other three did for their new organizations.  Heck even Casey’s Metrics have slipped this year. 

 

[Brawndo]

Edvinsson, Seider, Raymond and Larkin are probably untouchable from Detroit’s standpoint 

[Andrew Amerk]

We already had Compher, and he didn’t pan out well. 

[mjd1001]

9 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

Rather keep Cozens then bail out a division rival of a badish contract only for Cozens to find God and play amazing for them.

I agree with the concept but Cozens is just so bad. Without hyperbole, I think he actually hurts the team being out there.  Let him go to another team and play amazing for them, he's not doing it here. 

2-3 times a week he makes a play that puts the rest of the team in a bad position and I can't fathom how he isn't benched right away from it. He tanks the PP when he is on it.  Everytime he gets new linemates they have some of the worst games they have had playing with him (statistically not even close). No forward on this team is worse than a -4 except for Cozens and the guys that were on the line with him most of the year.  Tage and Zucker were both positive players all year, and just went negative after a couple games with Cozens. 11 forwards on this team have taken 30 or more shots on goal, he is the only one shooting under 10%.

If you are getting calls from other teams about Cozens, then see what you can get from them that might be better than what Detroit offers of course. But its well past time for Cozens to go.

[OrangeSeatVertigo]

11 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

Please don’t let Adams make any moves. Fire him and bring someone knowledgeable in.

This is Buffalo though so they will announce Adam’s 3 year extension Monday morning

who would want the job?   what a crappy situation to plop into

[DarthEbriate]

8 hours ago, Andrew Amerk said:

We already had Compher, and he didn’t pan out well. 

He didn't pan out because he was traded for ROR before playing a game with the Sabres?

Compher's career has been fine -- he's played over 500 games, been a 2C/3C defensive zone-start heavy player his entire career and is a -9 (because of one season on a very bad Avalanche squad). He averages a point every other game.

[Mr. Allen]

55 minutes ago, OrangeSeatVertigo said:

who would want the job?   what a crappy situation to plop into

I would.  I always do an awesome job turning the Sabres around to a championship team on my PlayStation…. 

[Andrew Amerk]

15 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

He didn't pan out because he was traded for ROR before playing a game with the Sabres?

Compher's career has been fine -- he's played over 500 games, been a 2C/3C defensive zone-start heavy player his entire career and is a -9 (because of one season on a very bad Avalanche squad). He averages a point every other game.

If he’s so great, then why did they trade him?

How did that trade work out?

[tom webster]

On 1/11/2025 at 11:26 PM, PerreaultForever said:

You're making the assumption that Adams would do a logical thing and trade for a player(s) that would help this team immediately. 

Wouldn't shock me in the least if they've already concluded this isn't the year and it'll be next year or the next next year and they would trade for Kasper or Danielson or some sort of package around one or more of them. Dumb? Yes. But it's Adams and Pegula. It's what they do. 

Kasper is definitely their target. They loved him in the draft and made the trade with Ottawa specifically to get him. If Murray didn’t veto that trade, he’d be a Sabre.

[Archie Lee]

2 hours ago, tom webster said:

Kasper is definitely their target. They loved him in the draft and made the trade with Ottawa specifically to get him. If Murray didn’t veto that trade, he’d be a Sabre.

Rasmussen was mentioned also, so it may have been Kasper and Rasmussen for Cozens and maybe a second piece. I’m not sure what I think of that. On the one hand I see the logic. Would this then send a healthy Kulich back to Rochester?  Or Kasper to Rochester?

The frustrating part is that the Sabres need to get to the point where they are trading the two pieces for one. Cozens and a prospect for a player who is better than Cozens makes a lot of sense. Cozens for a bottom six forward and a prospect, feels like the Mitts trade where we are kicking the can down the road (I say that fully acknowledging that Kasper may turn out to be a better player than Cozens).