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.

 

[Yak]

I don't know man. I never heard this rumor but I would have been buying a jersey with his name on it right away. I love him as a player and think he would be great addition to this team. I hope they can revisit this one in the off-season and add a player of his stature. Maybe they would like to take Perron off our hands and whoever else we got to give up to get him. I like the player and I like the attitude and I like the way he plays.

I also like the fact that Toronto tried to acquire him and it was rumored that he churned down Toronto. I guess that means he is a Ottawa Senators fan....jk...lol

 

[PlayOn]

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.

Norris for O’Reilly would be a little like Chychrun for Jensen. Good fit in the short-term but you also have nothing to show for it in two years.

There’s risk with Cozens for sure and personally I am not expecting much more than a ~55pt 2C, but at least he will have value in 2 years at that point if you want to trade him. There’s a risk he doesn’t improve but it’s also not a huge gamble to think you can help him round out his game and increase his production slightly.

The Norris vs Cozens swap is really on paper a bad contract for a bad contract though so I get your point. The Athletic does contract evaluations and basically they are both about 3.5 million overpaid as of now by their metrics.