It was pretty apparent to those that watched Reinhart night in and night out there was quite a bit more offensive potential for him outside of Buffalo. As others have said his hockey IQ is worlds better than Cozens and he frequently puts himself in the areas that goals are scored which Cozens does not. One fluke season doesn't put Cozens in the same ballpark as Sam Reinhart. I do agree about the losers mentality and we could absolutely use more vets in here that play the game the right way. Gourde would be a savvy pickup, Laughton not so much.
As a Sabres fan I'd be a bit underwhelmed by that return and I dont even really care for Cozens all that much.
There wasn't much we could do about the Eichel situation (outside of actually building a better team around him), so I don't really blame them for how they handled that debacle. As for O'Reilly I thought that was really handled poorly by the team. The words and attitude aspect was completely overblown. The guy gave an honest answer in a locker room clean out interview after a terrible season and the media dragged him through the mud and the team piled on top. Most of what I saw from him in his time here was overwhelmingly good. He rarely mailed it in and was a great role model for some of the younger guys on the team. Reinhart specifically mentioned him as a guy who taught him how to put the work in to improve his game.
Buffalo could absolutely use Carlo he'd be a great target. I doubt they are ready to move a guy like Kulich though and certainly not for guys that are more depth type of pieces.
Absolutely, but Buffalo has gotten into the habit of jumping the gun on these types of deals because they've botched these negotiations in the past by using bridge deals to slowplay long-term contracts for players and it's blown up in their faces. Reinhart being the 1st name that comes to mind. I think It's largely out of fear of losing the player as soon as they start to get some element of control over where they can play.
