I doubt Copp is going anywhere, and I'm not sure we'd be thrilled with what actually happens if he was bought out. We have no one to replace him with right now and whoever we sign in UFA is probably just going to end up in the same "he's overpaid!" doghouse in short order.
The guy buys in to what the team wants from him and holds down 16 minutes a night without getting regularly caved in. I know that sounds like a low bar but it's a bar we couldn't clear on the third line before he showed up.
Agreed. Everyone talks about how this team needs to get better defensively yet at the same time Copp is somehow apparently the root of most of the problems and must go immediately. It makes no sense.
Of the guys regularly taking draws, Copp is also the only one other than Larkin with a Faceoff percentage above 50%. When people want to buyout Copp I would ask who is going to take those thousand faceoffs and not get caved in but I'm guessing the answer would be some prospect who has never taken a draw in the NHL before.
The team is already weak at center. Unless he can be packaged for a trade that improves the team or until someone shows they can fill his role, he's likely not going anywhere because buying him out or trading him just leaves a bigger hole down the middle.