Sorry for all the spamming, after a pneumuthorax and pleuritis resulting in 5 weeks in intensive care, 2 large surgeries and another handful of smaller ones, and ordered sick leave for another 6 weeks I have way to much time on my hands.
A few thoughts.
Dylan Cozens is the big forward that skates well and has a great shot. I am not that keen at all on that concept. Looking at like a Pavel Zacha and many others, when they don’t hit it off they aren’t contributing much at if at all. The game is soooo much about speed, high intensity and especially offensive creativity. There are many things. You always have to pay a premium for the guys with size and a draft position when you negotiate their contracts. Or so it seems like at least.
BUT, Cozens not only have serviceable flash and dash highlight moves, like so many dominating junior players develop. He has very very good technique overall.
I think you can start to see in these kids how the ‘summer camp’ thing has been taken to the next level. You just don’t hit the ice for a few weeks here and there and work some on your game. It’s many many hours of very focused hard work. Say 10-15 years ago you could see that outstanding drilled technique on like the Russian kids coming out of those elite hockey schools like Kovalchuk and co. Now all of a sudden you see Brady effin Skjei drive up the puck from his own end without so much as glancing down at the puck. You can be Wayne Gretzky, nobody is born with that ability, it takes hours and we aren’t talking about an hour per day for three months. It’s much more than that.
For a kid like Cozens that can certainly be a difference maker in the end. Before goalies worked 24/7 on angles, strategies, pre-set moving patterns for all situations etc. Forwards, they worked on their shot. Accuratcy and velocity. Release. Period. That has changed too. So many forwards has started to work on goal scoring in the same way goalies are working on their game. When is a goalie vunerable? Where should you place the shots in different situations? A shot is often preceded by a little deke, the shooter moves like he is going for one corner and then goes somewhere else. They work a lot on those combinations. How can you make it as hard as possible for the goalie? I know that many experts at this feel that it’s a not that insignificant part of why scoring is up the last years. That can be debated, but it does make a lot of sense.
You can see that Cozens really have put in the work in these areas.
I am never going to be Cozens biggest fan. My initial reaction was to place him more like towards the late single digits or even slightly outside it, even 10-12. But looking more closely at him these stuff are just catching my attention. No matter what, sooner rather than later in this draft you are coming to a point where you just can’t pass on Cozens, whether it’s 3rd or 5th or 7th, it’s so hard to say. But I do think that he is — very — relevant in the range we likely will pick in. Either he goes before it’s our turn meaning that someone else drops to us, or we can take him and get a real quality kid.
I don’t buy the notion that this is a weak draft after the top 2. From my POV it’s the Hughes draft, with Turcotte, Kakko, vPod, Byram, Cozens and Zegras being really interesting players (give or take a name or two, I don’t have perfect track of everyone). That is 7 names, that is good for us. It’s a draft I certainly rather would pick 5-7 instead of 8-9. JMHO.
