[OTT/BUT] Josh Norris & JBD traded for Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert & 2026 2nd

Sens made out like bandits.

Norris is as good a dude as you’ll find in the league, and is a very good player, but there’s nothing in the deal that’s negative.

Cozens for Norris alone I find absolutely baffling, a 2nd coming our way as well is bananas. Adams is an absolute buffoon

Cozens fits the team like a glove. It’s a Zib-Brassard type deal on our side, we got the younger, higher ceiling guy for the known commodity

I still can't believe they had multiple teams willing to help them get out of the Norris contract with his injury history.
 
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Sens made out like bandits.

Norris is as good a dude as you’ll find in the league, and is a very good player, but there’s nothing in the deal that’s negative.

Cozens for Norris alone I find absolutely baffling, a 2nd coming our way as well is bananas. Adams is an absolute buffoon

Cozens fits the team like a glove. It’s a Zib-Brassard type deal on our side, we got the younger, higher ceiling guy for the known commodity

Big gap in age between those trades though. Brassard was 29 and exiting peak years, while Zibanejad was 23 and just about to enter his. There's only 2 years between Norris and Cozens.

Still a good haul to get a second as well however. Whenever I heard rumours of Norris on the trade block, i figured with how much retention or draft capital we'd have to part with that it wasn't worth making a deal. Excellent job by Staois
 
You can't make this up.

With that said, I wonder if he was already playing through some stuff.

It's a lot less logical to play through injuries when Buffalo is out of a playoff spot vs when Ottawa is in contention for one.

Lindy Ruff spoke about Norris this morning and said that it was something Norris has been dealing with for a while.

I’m assuming it’s the “mid-body” injury Norris was dealing with a few weeks ago.

Crazy thing about this trade is you knew this would happen. The guy cannot stay healthy whether it’s one thing or another. He always has something that’s keeping him out.

I really wonder if Staios got worried about the possibility of making this trade at the deadline when Norris got that mid-body injury (I.E. Adams pulling out because of the injuries).

To me it’s really unbelievable that Adams didn’t at least wait until the offseason to see what the market was on Cozens. That would’ve given him more time to see if Norris can stay healthy and it also would’ve opened the market with teams looking to improve or shake things up in the offseason. Plus in the offseason you have more teams with cap space to make things happen and a lot more time to see what the market looks like. Adams really made the worst possible decision here. He rushed this trade. I can almost guarantee Staios is making that deal without the 2nd rounder coming our way.

Staios knew that making a deal right now was the right thing to do. More injuries just for Norris just create more concern and lowers the return even more. Getting the return we got in this deal is insane. Even if Cozens was a 45 point player this deal was still worth it. Looking at this deal it’s like Adams never knew about Norris’s injury history.

It feels so good to be on this side of the deal this time.
 
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Norris is probably a mill overpaid so it makes sense he has value.

Been saying for a long time now he is an obvious weak link in the top 6 for an 8mill player.

I don't feel bad...Ottawa paid a ton of money upfront for a few years to him and thought it was overpay from the start. He's a good guy who ottawa gave a ton of rope to. I am sure he will be okay in Buffalo but getting Cozens who plays a better game and goes to the net works in our favour to continue pushing for an identity and to continue building around Brady's playstyle
 
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Norris is probably a mill overpaid so it makes sense he has value.

Been saying for a long time now he is an obvious weak link in the top 6 for an 8mill player.

I don't feel bad...Ottawa paid a ton of money upfront for a few years to him and thought it was overpay from the start. He's a good guy who ottawa gave a ton of rope to. I am sure he will be okay in Buffalo but getting Cozens who plays a better game and goes to the net works in our favour to continue pushing for an identity and to continue building around Brady's playstyle

I don't think his cap hit is too high anymore.

Norris as a UFA without the shoulder injuries would get 8M with term from someone this summer.

The surprising thing is the liability that the injuries present with the term of the contract. The real dollars being high is a secondary issue that will be relevant to some but not all teams.

I'm just surprised that the shoulder injuries didn't make him more difficult to trade. We heard of multiple teams seriously in on him.

I think this offseason we are going to see a lot of cap inflation on secondary stars like Norris. Rantanen had a hard time getting what he was worth, but I think maybe it will work out to where there is less movement at the top of the salary structure, but the secondary stars will get bumped up higher.

Similar to the David Clarkson summer.

(With that said, I do think our internal salary structure benefits from having Cozens at 7 vs Norris at 8. With Pinto up for an extension, it's a lot easier to point to Cozens and Stutzle as anchoring points. Because Stutzle at 8.3M without Norris at 8 makes Pinto asking for 8 seem ridiculous when Cozens is at 7 and Greig is at 3.XX.)
 
Both Norris and Cozens are overpaid. That's why the trade happened.

Arguable of Cozens, he may be a 65 point C who plays on the top PP and that’s a $7 million player on every team, he wasn’t on the Savers but he might be on the Sens
 
Arguable of Cozens, he may be a 65 point C who plays on the top PP and that’s a $7 million player on every team, he wasn’t on the Savers but he might be on the Sens
Both things are true. They are both overpaid as of now, and assuming full health, neither is likely to be overpaid in a couple years based on a combination of the cap rising and likelihood of improved performance. But that is a big assumption for Norris obviously.
 
Both things are true. They are both overpaid as of now, and assuming full health, neither is likely to be overpaid in a couple years based on a combination of the cap rising and likelihood of improved performance. But that is a big assumption for Norris obviously.

Norris the person is worth $8 million; Norris the goal scorer is worth $8 million, Norris the assists guy and 5 on 5 impact guy I don’t think will ever be an $8 million center
 
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Norris injured?

Taken from Buffalo hfboard

" Well, that didn't last long on Norris
Dealing with a issue he had and being evaluated by Sabres per Ruff"
 
Norris the person is worth $8 million; Norris the goal scorer is worth $8 million, Norris the assists guy and 5 on 5 impact guy I don’t think will ever be an $8 million center
By the third year of that deal Norris won’t even be occupying 7% of the cap. I don’t think you are going to find many 2Cs that are cheaper.

I also think he’ll produce more 5v5 with Buffalo. For starters we used him in a very defensive role so that didn’t help and our whole team wasn’t generating much. Considering we are trying to be a heavy forecheck team, I think his style of game also fits a lot better with Buffalo.

If he stays healthy the contract will be fine. I don’t think that is very likely though sadly.
 
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Sens made out like bandits.

Norris is as good a dude as you’ll find in the league, and is a very good player, but there’s nothing in the deal that’s negative.

Cozens for Norris alone I find absolutely baffling, a 2nd coming our way as well is bananas. Adams is an absolute buffoon

Cozens fits the team like a glove. It’s a Zib-Brassard type deal on our side, we got the younger, higher ceiling guy for the known commodity
i think the 2nd probably related more to JBD who is a young D and still developing, versus what we got back on D.
 

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