Probably beating a dead horse here but I watched another shift-by-shift on Cozens, this time from the playoffs, and I still don't know what it is that scouts see in him that make him a top5 prospect in this draft. He has some great tools in his size, skating and shot, no doubt about it, but pretty much all of his offense comes off the rush or on the PP. His hands are not great, his playmaking and passing is not great, he also seems to lose his balance a lot. I think I saw him on his ass ~8 times in this game and he gets outmuscled or outworked on the boards, which maybe isn't the biggest thing as he is tall and strength can be improved, but then again Pulju still struggles with these aspects of the game.
I also never see Cozens slow the game down and wait to make the right play. The play for him seems to always be to skate full speed and then shoot whether the opportunity is there or not, dangle and oftentimes losing the puck or forcing a pass. It works fairly well in juniors, but I just don't understand how scouts aren't questioning the rest of his game and how it will translate to the pros. For me he looks purely like a complementary player, and probably not even a 1st liner. Another thing I also wanted to mention is that I've been a lot more impressed with his linemate Jake Elmer in my viewings and I think Cozens has had quite a lot of help from him this season. In fact after I watched this game I went to look up Elmer's stats and saw that he is signed with the Rangers and has 4 points in 5 games with their AHL team. So clearly a pretty good player.
I just don't know why anyone would take Cozens over guys like Turcotte and Dach in particular but Zegras, Boldy and Krebs too. But if that means some team ahead of us picks him then by all means, I won't complain.