The Sabres are finding ways to hit new lows. On the tail of a 14-year playoff drought, the team is in the middle of a 13-game losing streak. They’ve been outscored 54-to-28 and outshot 378-to-355 along the way – reigniting the all-too-common conversation of which Sabres forward may be to blame. It’s a familiar spot for clinging Sabres fans, who saw Ryan O’Reilly traded away after a 25-win season in 2017-18; Jack Eichel traded in 2021 after a 5-3-1 start, and Casey Mittelstadt traded at last year’s trade deadline after a 7-6-0 record where three wins required extra time. This time around, it’s Dylan Cozens being pulled into the spotlight, but moving him out won’t be the piece to solve Buffalo’s skid.
The reasons why a big move likely won’t be the fix are convoluted but not complicated. Buffalo has scored the fewest (2.15) and allowed the most (4.08) goals per game since the start of their losing streak on November 27th. That’s partly thanks to a forward group that’s largely unengaged. Only five Sabres forwards have recorded 20 or more hits since the start of their skid. Of them, only two have scored five or more points: Tage Thompson (seven points and 21 hits) and Cozens (seven points and 29 hits).
Coincidentally, Cozens has also been on the ice for the second-most even-strength goals (9) of any Sabres forward, behind only Jason Zucker (10). He’s proven able to step up and make an impact when the pieces around him are quiet, helping him maintain a proud role as Buffalo’s second-line center.
Cozens maintaining his top-six role should be enough incentive to hold onto him – after all, no other Sabres are earning the second-line role. But even if Buffalo thought now was the best time to sell their 23-year-old, top-six centerman capable of scoring 20 goals and playing 20 minutes – the trade market for young forwards has been brutally harsh this year. Not even prior draft precedent can generate significant returns, with the Rangers only receiving defender William Borgen and a handful of draft picks for 2019 second-overall pick Kaapo Kakko. Philip Tomasino, Lars Eller, and Vasily Podkolzin all returned even less, netting only mid-round draft picks.
You have to go back to last season’s deadline to find a notable forward-for-forward swap: when the Penguins sent star scorer Jake Guentzel to Carolina for Michael Bunting and a litany of top prospects. Since then, only Pierre-Luc Dubois’ move to Washington represents any notable return for middling forwards, sending goaltender Darcy Kuemper to Los Angeles. The likelihood of Cozens sparking a big-package deal or swaying a team to move on from their capable starter is slim-to-non mid-season.
That’s to say trading Cozens would do little more for Buffalo than punt away an already-down year with the hopes that they receive enough draft capital to make it worth it. The move could give rookie Jiri Kulich and hot acquisition Ryan McLeod a chance at more ice time. To his credit, McLeod is tied with Cozens in scoring – each with 15 points in 34 games – and has posted much better results defensively. But his mark on the top-six wouldn’t counteract the depleted depth behind him unless one of Kulich, Tyson Kozak, or Sam Lafferty suddenly found a new stride.
More importantly, moving on from Cozens would mean moving on from a former top-10 pick who, only two seasons ago, posted 31 goals and 68 points at the age of 21. That year stands as a flash in the pan now, but it’s also Cozens’ show of strength when he’s part of an offense that maintains their strength throughout the season. With O’Reilly winning a Conn Smythe and Selke Trophy after his move, Eichel now a superstar in Vegas, and Mittelstadt thriving in Colorado’s top-six, the Sabres seem cursed to continue moving on from impactful forwards before they find their groove. Shipping out Cozens on just the second year of an incredibly team-friendly seven-year, $47.7MM contract – with no remaining signing bonuses – risks setting the Sabres up to repeat their sins.
The Sabres need a change. They can’t win a hockey game and have too much talent in their prospect pool to continue as basement dwellers with Stanley Cup aspirations. But in the heat of a prolonged skid, their sights are again trained on the second-line center. With each trade of a top forward, Buffalo moves on from younger and younger players. Now is a chance for the team not to repeat the errors of their old ways and finally find a new way to shake up their floundering roster.
Rangers-Sabers should make a trade
Mika-CK-Miller to BUF for Cozens, Greenway/ and Byram
Why the heck would Buffalo do that?
Are you high?
You don’t seem to be aware that both teams must agree on any trade.
Yep. It is that simple. Buffalo’s issues are much more than one player.
And it’s not even an issue of specific players being to blame (though Eichel’s attitude didn’t help much when he was a Sabre). It’s an issue of culture at this point. Simply trading players or firing HC Ruff or GM Adams won’t fix that, it would mean extending the perpetual rebuild and basically guaranteeing more seasons of failure.
How can they fix this team, then? I don’t know – if I did, I’d be working for them.
Buffalo is truly baffling. This was the year where they should be in the mix for a playoff spot. I thought it might be down to the wire with OTT to replace a team sliding out of contention for the final playoff position. I watched the two Ottawa games on the weekend and they’re playing good hockey. But Buffalo, I just don’t know.
No, it won’t. But not trading him won’t either. So what’s easier to do as a GM? Fire your entire front office and coaching staff, including yourself? Or trading a couple of players and hoping for the best?
Would love for the Canes to find a way to get him. Exactly the kind of player they need and RBA could coach up. Time for a big splash in the middle of this mediocre stretch if they want this season to be contender-tier rather than just playoffs-tier.
It’s not the player’s, Good lord people!
Preds have 3 first round picks are are ready to make a deal. Let’s get this done.
Preds actually make alot of sense. Although I think Adams would like a young player or two rather than another pick that’ll take 3 years to be ready. Perhaps L’Heureux, Parssinen and a 1st? I’d love the Leafs to get him but they can’t fit that salary under their cap. Unless Buffalo takes Kampf, Reaves, Jarnkrok, Robertson and Holmberg (not suggesting that as a trade, just for salary matching).
Thompson and Tuch will be the ones to go. Would love Tage back in STL. Need a 2C.
Time to Fleece the Sabres again Army
Blues need him badly
Fleece the Sabres again?
But you want Tage back. Tage was the main piece back for ROR.
?????
If any player needs to go it’s Tage. Great shot but teams adjust to Tage & Tage seems to take longer to adapt.
The Sabres would have been a Cup contender by now if they had only tried to keep their talent. Now they are in no man’s land with too many young guys trying to develop or elevate their games. It’s brutal. They have no choice but to shake it up or accept at least two more years of bad losing