The Buffalo Sabres have lost their last 11 games and are once again in a tailspin. Several teams have inquired about their players, but perhaps none more than centreman Dylan Cozens. Cozens is someone the Philadelphia Flyers have been linked to for some time and there’s no better time than the present for former Sabres alumni, Daniel Brière, to pick up the phone.
According to multiple sources, including Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Sabres owner Terry Pegula and GM Kevyn Adams met with the players a few days ago ahead of their contest against Montréal. The message that was apparently displayed was they still believed in the team and that they weren’t going to tear anything down in terms of the front office, coaching, and player personnel.
However, where there’s smoke there’s always fire, and the Sabres are in deep trouble at the moment. Stuck in an endless state of purgatory, their rebuilding efforts have gone on too long and seemingly yielded very few results, despite drafting top-end talent.
The Sabres have missed the postseason for 13 straight seasons and ironically enough the last time they were in the spring dance was when they were ousted by the Flyers in the first round back in 2011. It’s been a long and winding road for the Sabres and what’s made it worse is that they’ve lost or traded away a lot of their young talent in recent years.
Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart have both won Stanley Cup and were fundamental reasons as to why their teams were crowned champions. Casey Mittelstadt has turned into a top-6 forward for the Colorado Avalanche and the jury is still out on Matthew Savoie, who was surprisingly traded this summer to the Edmonton Oilers just two years removed from being drafted 9th overall.
Which brings us to their current team and Cozens especially. The Whitehorse, Yukon native had posted a career-high 31 goals and 68 points in 81 contests during the 2022-23 season. A lot of the same was expected from him in 2023-24 but he struggled to the tune of just 18 goals and 47 points across 79 games and it’s been more of the same this year with just 6 goals and 13 points in 31 games.
Buffalo is at a loss and are looking for solutions to their lengthy drought. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch continue to lead the way, and JJ Peterka has come into his own in recent years, but prospects like Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, and Jiri Kulich have struggled this season and it hasn’t helped their situation.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman took to his “32 Thoughts” last week and mentioned that the Sabres were essentially being bombarded by calls for the soon-to-be 24-year-old centre.
“7. Alright, some other stuff: Buffalo is getting calls on Dylan Cozens. This would terrify me if I were the Sabres, vultures circling overhead while player and team struggle. Right-shot centre, 23 years old, two years removed from a 30-goal season. He’s also signed for five more seasons at a $7.1M AAV, helping his value. I would be very, very careful with this because he’s legitimately wanted.”
The Flyers have been in the market for a centre and have been linked to names like Shane Pinto and Marco Rossi on top of Cozens. The Rossi-train has more or less left the station with how he has performed this season, especially in the absence of Joel Eriksson Ek who is sidelined indefinitely again.
The Senators have protected Pinto from trade talks over the years, despite the Flyers constantly being on their tail for the 24-year-old. Ottawa has dangled Josh Norris instead and have insisted that Pinto is unavailable – something they thought would have been a foregone conclusion after signing an extension – but he remains firmly on teams’ radars.
Cozens would then make for a perfect acquisition considering he fits the Flyers’ positional needs down the middle and he fits their rebuilding efforts and core.
Outside of Sean Couturier and Morgan Frost, the Flyers don’t have any top-6 centre options within at the moment and the latter could very well be on the move this year. Frost is looking for his third contract in four years and it’s very hard to tell whether or not the Flyers would want to bring him back next year and beyond. How he finishes the season will be the most telling sign.
The Flyers also have the luxury of owning 6 picks in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft in 2025 and they should all be within in the top-50. Cap space will be the biggest hurdle when you factor in Cozens’ $7.1 million cap hit across the next 5 seasons, but the Flyers could always look to add some salary alongside draft picks.
Scott Laughton has been a name the Sabres have been linked to for quite some time and Joel Farabee has also drawn a lot of trade interest this year. Either player would help fill a need in Buffalo whether down the middle or on the wing and would help the Flyers come close to matching salaries.
Similar to the Yaroslav Askarov and David Jiříček sweepstakes, the Flyers won’t be the only ones interested and that will inevitably drive the price a little higher. You’d also think if a young NHL-ready centreman of his skill set and calibre is available, you do what you have to do to get him, but that falls on Brière and the rest of the front office.
President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones was a guest on “Real Kyper and Bourne” featuring former NHLer Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne to discuss some of the latest news surrounding the Flyers and he added some interesting tidbits about their trade deadline plans.
“We’re not going to be adding. We’ll be subtracting. We’ve been clear about that,” Jones told Kypreos and Bourne. “We are not in a position where we’re ready to be a Stanley Cup-contending team yet.
“We’re open to a lot of ideas, I’ll tell you that, there’s no doubt. I can’t rule out any member of our team not being a part of that future.”
“Adding” could be interpreted in a few different ways but it sounds like they won’t be mortgaging the future for a quick fix. Fortunately, Cozens would be a piece for both the present and future and while trading picks in a rebuild is a little off-brand, if it’s for a young stud offensive-minded centre you saddle up.
We’ve been disappointed before, sometimes because the Flyers weren’t even in the conversation to begin with or because the Flyers didn’t have the right pieces or didn’t offer enough to match other teams. If Cozens is indeed on the move and the Flyers miss the boat, their rebuilding plans should be reconsidered for specific situations like these.
Draft picks are a crapshoot outside of the first round, let alone the lottery slots, and if you can get your hands on an NHL-ready player signed through the next 5 seasons at a reasonable cap hit AND you have the subsequent pieces that could make it work, why the hold-up?
A risk is needed because the pipeline is a little barren down the middle outside of Jett Luchanko and while he’s a great piece for the future and top-6 centre in the making, he doesn’t hold the same offensive capabilities of Cozens – at least at this very moment.
Cozens would be a perfect acquisition and fit for the Flyers and someone who would be able to play and match up well with budding superstar Matvei Michkov.
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