Cozens vs O'Reilly

[PlayOn]

Cozens is a no brainer here just for his age and the way he fits on the team’s trajectory and locked up long term.

O’Reilly you have him under contract one more season. You can re-sign him, sure, but he’s 36 at that point.

Then you need to find another center and I don’t think we could find a center as good as Cozens for 7M with the cap going up. Looking at a trade you then have to give assets to find that guy.

O’Reilly really doesn’t make sense compared to Cozens.

Kinda depends what Cozens winds up being. If he’s a 55-60 point centre Pinto could be that in a couple of years.

But I think in general top 6 centres are hard to find. Might as well take a chance on the upside because if you need to trade one later you’ll always be able to.

 

[Masked]

I would’ve been pissed if we traded Norris for ROR. We aren’t a ROR away from being a cup contender. Cozens can grow with this young team.

It would have been about getting out of the Norris contract and having more cap space.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

I don’t know 4.5 million for Oreilly for this year and 2 more is pretty tempting. Better player. Veteran and plays the game the right way. Age and foot speed definitely a factor though. Just unloading the Norris contract would allow us to use that cap space elsewhere to improve this roster .

But if Cozens lives up to his contract then it’s an easy choice and we made the right one .

At first glance I didn't know how the hell Staios could have debated between the two, but then your post made all the sense in the world.

O'Reilly at 4.5 for 2 more years is TERRIFICCCC value for him. He just put up 70 points last year and is excellent 2 way with cup. Makes complete sense. We would have been able to get another forward with cap flexibility ontop of Zetterlund in off-season.

Would have been a pretty amazing move even if O'Reilly is 33.

The bottom line is Staios seems have to have some pretty solid vision. Targetting JT Miller, O'Reilly, Cozens, Zetterlund. He's got a plan and he is persistent with it.

 

[Ouroboros]

It's hard to believe O'Reilly isn't running away with this poll.

Getting Ryan O'Reilly back would have been an unbelievable return for Josh Norris. Getting a better player for 2 years at an outstanding cap number [4.5M] would have been crazy. That gives you so much flexibility to do other things.

Cozens is a risk whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Not a health risk the way Norris way, but there's every possibility that he settles in as the 40-45 point perennial disappointment he's been for most of his career in Buffalo.