Cozens To The Habs? Montreal Canadiens Make a Play for Buffalo Sabres Star Dylan Cozens

General manager (GM) Kent Hughes is known for being active and making calls to his NHL counterparts, looking to gauge the market on who is available and what the trade values of players can be. Because of this, Montreal will always be linked in some way to the trade market. However, the team does have needs, and the ability to remain patient for prospects grows smaller with each passing month.

The Canadiens’ rebuild is ongoing, and while they have a deep prospect pool that boasts players in every position, there is still a glaring need for centre depth

Canadiens’ Centre Dilemm

Currently, Montreal has a top-line center in Nick Suzuki, however, the depth behind him is insufficient to make the club a true playoff contender, yet. As of February 2025, there are no true top-six centres available to the Canadiens. Jake Evans has filled that role on and off this season, and while he is having a career season in goals and points, he is not a top-six centre on a playoff club. Ideally, he would fill the fourth-line role on a contending team and has been heavily connected to the trade market. Then there is Christian Dvorak, who like Evans, is an unrestricted free agent (UFA) on July 1. Also, like Evans, Dvorak is not a top-six center. 

But what about Kirby Dach you may ask? Well, he hasn’t been able to find his footing as a reliable centre at the NHL level with Montreal. With 10 goals and 22 points in 54 games, his offensive production has been inconsistent, and so has his defensive play and his effectiveness in general. Add in his 40.6% success rate in the faceoff circle, which is an improvement overall from previous seasons, and he doesn’t seem able to become the centre Hughes had hoped he could become. That isn’t to say he can’t be a top-six forward, it just means it is looking far more likely that it will be as a winger.

Beyond him, the only other internal options to fill that second-line role fall to Owen Beck and Michael Hage. Beck is in his first professional season and Hage is only a freshman at the University of Michigan, and while both have good potential to become quality middle-six centers, neither is expected to reach that stage for a few more seasons.

That is the dilemma, a lack of internal options at centre. Offensively, however, there is hope on the horizon as Ivan Demidov is on his way. He is burning the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) offensively, setting records for under 20-year-olds. But he is also on pace for 57 points this season, which would be enough to beat the record for most points by an under-22-year-old player in that league. The current record holder is his teammate Alexander Nikishin who had 55 points at age 21, in his fourth season.

While the expectation is to see Demidov enter the NHL and make an immediate positive impact offensively, he will need to be properly supported, and waiting for some of the other top prospects to develop into quality NHL centres isn’t feasible to help in that endeavour.

The Trade Market

According to NHL Insider Kevin Weekes, the Canadiens are among the several NHL teams that have been inquiring about a possible trade involving Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens. He’s a 23-year-old centre with good size (6-foot-3 and 212 pounds), as well as high offensive upside, but due to a recent dip in production, there are some questions that will need to be answered. According to Marco D’Amico at RG.org, sources indicated that the Sabres aren’t just looking to get rid of Cozens.

“They’re going to want a significant established piece or a high-level asset they can flip for one,”

– An RG.org Eastern Conference source close to the situation

To do that, Hughes would need to include one of his 2025 first-round picks, but also, likely add a young player off of the roster. The question is, who would be considered expendable to complete that type of deal or to fill that identified need at centre? Only two years ago, on Feb. 7, Buffalo signed Cozens to a seven-year extension paying him $7.1 million per season. While he hasn’t lived up to the hope of that deal thus far, it isn’t all his doing. The 23-year-old isn’t having his best season so far. Only two seasons ago, however, he had a 31-goal and 68-point output while playing in a second-line centre role. The last two seasons have seen a reduction in offensive production, not only from him but his entire team. Cozens’ 1.8 points per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time would place him third on the Canadiens behind the top line of Cole Caufield (2.81, good for second in the NHL), Suzuki (2.29) and Juraj Slafkovsky (1.95).

Buffalo has had players who went on to success after the Sabres such as Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly, Sam Reinhart, and Brandon Montour. Had they been able to hold onto those players and tried more to build around them, they may not have ever been in the dilemma they are in now. Can their lack of success on the ice or in player development all be blamed on “culture”? No, while a lack of a winning culture could be part of it, it is the franchise’s lack of stability in the front office that holds most of the blame as they never had someone at the helm long enough to identify and acquire veterans to insulate their young players that fit their philosophy as the GMs were changed too quickly for a rebuild philosophy to take root.

Now, the Sabres are in need of a step back, identifying their core, and looking for assets to surround them. Montreal has those types of assets with picks and young players, but also veterans with playoff experience and even some that have term left on their contracts that could be added to any package.

Future Canadiens

There is a risk versus reward aspect that Hughes must carefully explore because of Cozens’ recent dip in play. While the Canadiens’ GM has shown a penchant for gambling on reclamation projects such as Dach for instance, that should also provide him some pause, or at the very least, demand the patience to fully explore any potential deal, especially the cost in assets lost and the impact they could have as well as the additional salary he would incur bringing Cozens in.

Keeping all of the risks in mind, the Canadiens will need to be extremely cautious in what assets they use to acquire anyone if they do make a trade. That is because there is still the need to add to the prospect pool, and with that, they do have their eye on a potential homegrown talent that can become a top-six NHL center in Caleb Desnoyers. The young Moncton Wildcats centre is slated to go in the top 10 at the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, so Montreal will likely need to package up their own first, and likely another quality asset, to move up a few spots to select him.

It would be beneficial to continue to use assets to trade up to add top-end skill. While the Canadiens’ prospect pool is considered very deep, Hughes will not be able to keep everyone in the system, so using assets to trade up for players that have higher potential ceilings, but also higher floors, means that the depth of that pool is lessened, but the potential NHL impact is improved.