WeThreeKings
Demidov is a HAB
I think offensively it's a wash but Dach is abysmal on the FO and Cozens is a better player defensively. But like you, i don't think Cozens value as that higher because of his salary.
See where he is at face-offs when he has as many games under his belt at center as Cozens has.. like I said, Dach's faceoffs are terrible but Cozens has been bad outside of this year in the dot. This year, Cozens is better defensively, pre-injury Dach was better defensively than Cozens. Neither would be match-up centers.
The salary kills it from being a move to make. He's just paid too much for one season and a declining production from that season without any factors contributing to it like an injury. Just that Buffalo sucks. But so do we.
Dach wasn’t a centre when he had his good season with us. He was a PP merchant (42% of his production vs 26% for Cozens) and was mostly good as a winger.
Part of it was at the wing, sure.. part of it was as a center on his own line. The truth is still that Cozens only has one year of production and a salary that matches that production and not what he's actually been hitting.
Cozens just isn't a surefire upgrade. As insurance to Dach, I like the idea, though wish he was a left shot centre. But to pay to make the swap, we could come out as a loser very easily in that situation.