Buffalo Sabres Set the Price Tag High for Dylan Cozens
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron on Sirius XM NHL Network Power Play segment on Wednesday. He was asked about Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens and if he would still be on Sabres after the March 7th Trade Deadline.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, and the Buffalo Sabres
Steve Kouleas: “I’m on your board on The Fourth Period here. I’m on 2025 trade watch list, 3.0. What are you Microsoft? 3.0 number three is Dylan Cozens. Is Dylan Cozens going to be a Sabre at 3:01? I’m doing it for dramatic effect on March 7, what do you think?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Well, it was going to come up to, or, excuse me, come down to what Kevyn Adams and his staff feel is going to be the right price for Dylan Cozens. Obviously, there’s a lot of interest. There has been for a while. They’ve been exploring this for some time and teams that are interested. We’re starting to hear more of it.
Obviously, there’s Chicago, there’s Calgary, there’s Montreal, there’s Detroit, there’s a few other teams that have been kind of poking around. Nashville that want to address their 2C position and feel that Cozens is a target.
Now, from Buffalo’s perspective, they don’t just want to give him away for futures. Like if they’re going to do something, it’s going to be a hockey-type trade talent for talent. That’s where things kind of get a little difficult to manage and agree on.
There’s a lot of reports recently, and Calgary has been poking around for a while. This week sounded like things may have been escalating there. From what I was told from both sides, that right now, anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a pathway to a potential deal between Calgary and Buffalo that can change, but that’s kind of the consensus right now from both sides. So we’ll see kind of where that goes.
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But there are other teams in the mix. There are other teams poking and Buffalo is willing to listen. They understand that they’ve got to kind of shake up things over there to get this team back into playoff contention for however long it’s been. The four wins in a row is nice, but there’s a lot more that needs to be figured out here with this roster, and Cozens is a guy that they’re listening on.
NHLRumors.com Note: As Pagnotta noted, this could be a bigger trade in terms of what the Sabres want in return. Kevin Weekes of ESPN originally tweeted out that Montreal, Calgary, Nashville, Detroit, and Toronto were in the mix. It would take a lot for the Montreal Canadiens to trade for Dylan Cozens. Not to mention, does management want to take on that type of deal? Not to mention, do they want to give up on prospects that are coming and give away first-round draft picks?
We know Detroit and Buffalo had been talking about Cozens, but nothing happened before or after the Holiday Trade Freeze. Toronto is interesting because does that mean they are moving on from John Tavares or someone else? Nashville had been loading up to do something and had been looking for a center. Not to mention, the Flames still want another center, and Cozens fits the right shot variety.
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