Confirmed Trade: [OTT/BUF] Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert, and 2026 2nd round pick for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker

[SensontheRush]

BRUTAL as a Sens fan.

Norris was VERY underutilized by Green.

 

[SundherDome]

Hathaway broke Cozens, hopefully Ottawa can bring him back to being relevant. You can watch Cozens think on the ice.

 

[Beerz]

im pretty sure the game plan is to put cozens on wing and allow Pinto and Greig to play c

Tkachuk-Stutzle-Cozens
Giroux-Pinto-Batherson
Perron-Greig-Amadio

sens got some cap space too so i wouldnt be surprised if sens use that to add a rental

I think Cozens can thrive in that role.

 

[MOGlLNY]

TSN’s panel has never watched a Sabres game. Good lord. He is not the player they’re describing.

Maybe it’s a Buffalo thing where he checks out and it changes but he has not been close to the player he was since he signed his contract.

 

[fsanford]

The reality of Cozens this year is that he's been outright bad: failing the eye test, failing the analytics test, removed from the top PP, removed from the PK altogether. Every player he plays with sees their numbers go down.

The concept of Cozens is a big, fast, competitive RH centre who can score 30 and match up against anybody.

Given the Sabres history, pretty likely the Sens will be getting the latter.

Guys leave the Sabres they find new life
It's a bad organization..Maybe the worst of the 4 Big sports, though Jets are up there.

 

[KevinRedkey]

One thing to note is Norris isn't great 5on5. He only has 12 points this year vs 25 for Cozens.

Norris is great on special teams though.

 

[Chainshot]

Reminds me of TSN when the Myers trade happened and all of a sudden it was how good he is when literally the night before they were shitting on the guy.

Maybe Cozens does step up now that he's having to deal with being moved. But he isn't a great or frequent fighter as TSN is trying to put out in this deal. He'd be a good F1 RW. He tends to overhandle as the puck transition player at center and his engagement in his own zone has gone south since Granato tried to convince him to be a 40 goal guy.

 

[Barsky]

BRUTAL as a Sens fan.

Norris was VERY underutilized by Green.

You misspelled "AWESOME" as a Sens fan

 

[McOvechking]

every player in this trade is underwhelming and frustrating to watch. lose lose for fans of both teams

 

[Chose]

Secretly wishing Hugues is messing with Ottawa with an O'Reilly acquisition...

 

[zenthusiast]

Cozens has no brain or soul. Good riddance

 

[MOGlLNY]

Sabres are good to great on 5v5 per 60 and terrible on PP so I’m sure this was targeted

 

[Sheppy]

TSN panel seems to be hammering on the fact that getting Cozens means Tkachuk will have to fight less because Cozens will pick up some of that load.

Listen, I like Cozens. He’s not a fighter by any stretch. Sure, he has, but if let’s be real here.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

They gotta stop saying Cozens brings toughness.

Guy gets beat up a lot.

Or that Norris is easy to play against.

 

[jetsforever]

Oh man was hoping we could get Cozens

 

[TheBarnIsElectric]

I look at his stats everywhere else and they are excellent. A lot of Sabres players got traded and improved tremendously.

This is the narrative, but I don't think it's actually true. Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly were excellent players in Buffalo, they just had s*** around them and the teams sucked. Teams of other fans didn't watch Buffalo (understandably) and so underrated them, but they were good. They definitely went elsewhere and found success pretty quickly, but they were the same players before and after, for the most part.

Mittelstadt got worse.

The one example I'd give you is Ristolainen, who sucked in Buffalo and has played better in Philly.

Edit: Montour is another one, for sure. They didn't let him do his thing when he was in Buffalo, but that was a different coach.

 

[SensontheRush]

You misspelled "AWESOME" as a Sens fan

Nope.

HUGE misplay by Staois.

This isn't an Eichel or Reinhart situation. Cozens is more of that crappy Middelstadt variety.

 

[thewookie1]

Confused by all this fighting talk in regards to Cozens; guy just got beat badly by Kotkiniemi last week

 

[Ace]

If anyone expects Cozens to be anything like what TSN just spent 20 minutes selling him as…oh boy,

They’re talking hard to play against, physical, tough…coming in to take stuff off Tkachuk’s plate…

Man lost a fight to Jesperi Kotkaniemi last week. Last night he took a front row seat to Dahlin getting mugged by three guys…TWICE. Once when Dahlin raced in to defend…Dylan Cozens.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

You misspelled "AWESOME" as a Sens fan

Yeah it looks really good for Ottawa, trading depth for an upgrade.
I predict Docker ends up getting waived next year by Buffalo.

 

[guyzeur]

You can tell things are picking up cause this site is slowing down more and more lol

Cause almost everyone is having multiple HFB windows opened

 

[Cosmix]

Easily rep

No, not really

Easily replaceable 3rd pair RD. Matinpalo has already taken his RD spot!

 

[mphmiles]

Pinto has greatly outperformed Norris as a 2 way C in similar matchups this year and that probably made Ottawa's front office feel like Norris was expendable. It seems like this move is Ottawa planning on giving the matchup role fully to Pinto and trying to add more skill/playmaking in Cozens.

 

[Djp]

One thing to note is Norris isn't great 5on5. He only has 12 points this year vs 25 for Cozens.

Norris is great on special teams though.

Could be a system/ team style/ linemates thing

 

[Barsky]

Nope.

HUGE misplay by Staois.

This isn't an Eichel or Reinhart situation. Cozens is more of that crappy Middelstadt variety.

Mitts has never and will never break 20 goals, agree to disagree. You're also forgetting that the most important ability is availability. Norris is another shoulder surgery just waiting to happen, as much as I like the player