I’ve seen the chatter online about the Red Wings and Sabres making a trade for Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram or half a dozen other players, but I don’t believe the hype, and neither does Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:
Sabres center Dylan Cozens is the player the Hockeytown faithful certainly covet. He could be that second-line center the team’s been seeking out forever. One rumor even went as far as to suggest the reason why the Red Wings were moving Joe Veleno to the top line is because they are showcasing him in a one-for-one deal for Cozens.
News flash – that deal is about as likely to happen as Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell is likely to punt on fourth and one.
Does mean Detroit GM Steve Yzerman definitely hasn’t talked to the Sabres regarding Cozens? Absolutely not.
“You talk to every team in the league,” Yzerman said. “Okay, like, we want this player from your team, okay, we want that player. He may or may not be available. And well, to get those players, we gotta give up our good players. It’s as simple as that. It’s not like, ‘hey, I’m gonna give you my bad players for your good players, okay? Like, I’ll give you two bad ones for one good one.’ It doesn’t work that way.”
A possible Cozens scenario would likely involve Marco Kasper moving to Buffalo. Would you do that deal? In a heartbeat. However, there are extenuating circumstances. The Sabres are going to want more than just Kasper. That might even mean giving up a first-round pick.
From Detroit’s perspective, Cozens has an AAV of $7.1 million. The Red Wings can’t fit that number under the cap. They’ll need the Sabres to also take a contract, someone like JT Compher, Andrew Copp, or Vladimir Tarasenko. Why would Buffalo want to do that?
