Confirmed Signing with Link: [BUF] F Dylan Cozens signs extension with the Sabres (7 years, $7.1M AAV)

[SnuggaRUDE]

Tage is having a career year. He will never come close to this ever again. And the season he is having is fooling Buffalo management into thinking they are closer than they are. Now you've locked in your core to long term deals without even making the playoffs based on half a season of sample size.

Good luck is all I can say.

Cozens, Mittelstadt, Thompson, Tuch all having insane shooting% years and due for massive regression. Even Dahlin having a career year in shooting%.

I get it though, not the first fan base to think things will keep rolling. But even with all of these crazy seasons, they are still not a playoff team. Next year I predict by this time Buffalo is hovering in no mans land yet again with no cap room to improve with good players but not elite locked into long term deals.

Hedging into a losing position is dominated by playing to your outs.

Come hell or winning the draft lottery Buffalo won't have access to any elite players who aren't currently in their system as of today. There aren't any on the horizon through UFA. How exactly could they optimize capspace beyond signing good players?

Your implied alternative is to do what tear down the team and try again? Sign Thompson/Cozens to bridge deals taking them to UFA? Neither of those strike me as strictly better alternatives.

There's two outcomes for each of Cozens / Thompson:
1. Worth their contract or better
2. Worse than their contract

Three Strategies for Buffalo to pursue (one of which is suicidal)
A. Sign them long term
B. Immediately trade Cozens or Thompson
C. Sign them short term


In the case of 1 Buffalo wins by picking A
In the case of 2 Buffalo wins by picking B
In the case of 2 Buffalo 'ties' by picking C

But here's the problem with stopping there: If Cozens / Thompson aren't worth their contracts the team is dead in the water anyway; those are their high end forwards.

 

[Chainshot]

I'd suggest that ppg is a pretty important stat. Which stats would you prefer to compare them on?

Points per 60 is also pretty important. Cozens is hovering around 2 (2.02), Boldy is 1.16. Nothing wrong with either deal.

 

[LongWayDown37]

Who is basing contracts on a half season of play?

Nobody. Teams offer contracts on production, growth and projection (based on a lot of information and exposure you and I don’t have).

 

[MuckOG]

Points per 60 is also pretty important. Cozens is hovering around 2 (2.02), Boldy is 1.16. Nothing wrong with either deal.

Exactly.

 

[bigdog16]

Oh, ffs.

Here. You need this.

overreacting to having a small penis at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

Pshhhhh *as I get in my jacked up f-350*

 

[Sabresruletheschool]

Tage is having a career year. He will never come close to this ever again. And the season he is having is fooling Buffalo management into thinking they are closer than they are. Now you've locked in your core to long term deals without even making the playoffs based on half a season of sample size.

Good luck is all I can say.

Cozens, Mittelstadt, Thompson, Tuch all having insane shooting% years and due for massive regression. Even Dahlin having a career year in shooting%.

I get it though, not the first fan base to think things will keep rolling. But even with all of these crazy seasons, they are still not a playoff team. Next year I predict by this time Buffalo is hovering in no mans land yet again with no cap room to improve with good players but not elite locked into long term deals.

This has to be a disgruntled Leafs fan finding Buffalo threads to bash on them because it makes him feel like he's really accomplished something in life.

 

[Aladyyn]

“They paid Cozens for his unsustainable shooting percentage”

…

Tell me you’ve never watched Dylan Cozens play without telling me you’ve never watched Dylan Cozens play.

what a take


Of all the things I expected to see today I can honestly say someone trying to dunk on a contract that pays Tage Thompson what Kevin Hayes makes now until 2030 as a bad deal they will regret.

What an amazing moment we are living in.

It's funny because it takes like 15 seconds to see that Cozens is scoring pretty much exactly in line with his xG and actually underperforming it at 5on5. So unsustainable.

 

[tsujimoto74]

It's funny because it takes like 15 seconds to see that Cozens is scoring pretty much exactly in line with his xG and actually underperforming it at 5on5. So unsustainable.

Did you remember to factor in that 21yo former top 10 picks who've been on steady development trajectories are notorious for immediately regressing

 

[MarkusKetterer]

You're right. And the best part is I take the gamble all day if I am Buffalo. I just wanted to point out that it doesn't always go as planned, which many Buffalo fans seem to not understand


It is certainly still a bad contract, you can't sit here and negate the past 3 years because he is playing well this year lol. What happens next year when he regresses back to his norm? Which, by the way, is the most likely outcome considering he has been a 50-60 point player his entire career.


Big dog in real life too fam

You mean if Skinner regresses back to scoring 25-30 goals, like he usually does? Still overpaid, but still not the worst contract in the league.

 

[Bfreezy40]

Need to get Cozens some real wingers now!

 

[Satanphonehome]

I've read a lot of posts about players not wanting to be in Buffalo.
We've just seen three players sign 7-year deals with the Sabres in the past 6 months. I suspect Dahlin will make it a fourth this summer.
Actions speak louder than words. I'm thinking the tide has turned.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

This has to be a disgruntled Leafs fan finding Buffalo threads to bash on them because it makes him feel like he's really accomplished something in life.

It must suck knowing Matthews is gone soon. Have some sympathy.

 

[Ace]

I've read a lot of posts about players not wanting to be in Buffalo.
We've just seen three players sign 7-year deals with the Sabres in the past 6 months. I suspect Dahlin will make it a fourth this summer.
Actions speak louder than words. I'm thinking the tide has turned.

Power will probably make it 5.

I think they’re going to walk up to him with a deal similar to this one and Tage’s. If I was a D who could get 50 million guaranteed at 20 and get another contract at 28…yeah…I’m probably taking it.

 

[JeffroTullison]

Love it. $14.2 million per year for your top 2 C for 7 years.

$18.3 million per year for your top 2 C and one half of your top D pairing for 7 years. Next up is Dahlin and see what he gets.

Dahlin 8x$10m would be a steal. Likely higher

 

[TeamRenzo]

I didn't think he was at that level yet but by the sounds of it Sabres fans are happy good for them!

 

[WhereAreTheCookies]

I've read a lot of posts about players not wanting to be in Buffalo.
We've just seen three players sign 7-year deals with the Sabres in the past 6 months. I suspect Dahlin will make it a fourth this summer.
Actions speak louder than words. I'm thinking the tide has turned.

Obviously in recent years that's been more prevalent, but even back when the Sabres were a good team there seemed to be a lot of players who wanted nothing to do with Buffalo. The same could be said of the NFL with comments players around the league have made in the past like Brady.

I think for most of them that notion changes significantly once they actually live in the area and realize how great it is there. Just look at how many players move back to the area, or stay when their careers end. It's a shame more active players don't pay attention to that because to me it speaks volumes. Maybe it doesn't have the allure of a big city like NYC or Toronto, but for a player looking at starting a family it's a great place to live.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I think these players are quite young and like being on the team together.

Dahlin, Cozens, Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, Samuelsson are all within a year or so. Don't need a big city if your aspirations are playing Golf and Mario Party.

 

[tsujimoto74]

I think these players are quite young and like being on the team together.

Dahlin, Cozens, Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, Samuelsson are all within a year or so. Don't need a big city if your aspirations are playing Golf and Mario Party.

In full fairness, compared to where he grew up, Buffalo probably is a big city for Cozens. Buffalo's population is >6x that of the entire Yukon Territory.

 

[LeProspector]

Whats going on with this guy?

 

[Yatzhee]

Whats going on with this guy?

Coaching.
If you don't know what's gone in Buffalo, let us Sabres fans fill you in.
The owner has hired 1st time GM's and 1st time coaches 99% of the last 13 seasons.
This most recent coach, Don Granato, let the team go offense first last season. This season, he's demanding defense first training. So everyone's scoring numbers have plummeted. The Sabres were the 3rd highest scoring team last season.

Here's some bonus info, the Sabres are the youngest team across the board in the NHL. So, it's first time coach has screwed the scoring for a "this seadon we learn defense" training session, and it's first time GM, Kyven Adams brought in absolutely 0 much needed veteran presence, a true #1 goalie and a couple of 3/4 d men. He's got the assets to make the moves mind you, but, Granato must have photos of Adams and a donkey.

In other words, Cozens, Tage, Dahlin and all the others are in the middle of another shit show in Buffalo because the owner refuses to hire experienced GM and Coaching staff for some baffling unknown reason.

 

[Leonardo87]

Can we please not bump up year old threads. Thanks.