TrueBlueGED

Should have traded it.

In my mind, everyone after Kakko is basically a game of "pick your preference" and are essentially the same talent-wise through the top-10. Not everyone will agree with that, but I don't think any gaps that are there are large enough to be worth arguing about. With that as my base, I think Cozens brings a potential high end two-way game that is completely absent in the organization at center. He'll never be in the All-Star game due to raw offensive output, but we don't need that now or in the future because we have Jack and (hopefully) Mittelstadt.

Funny, Couturier and Horvat were the guys in my mind when reading up on Cozens. We don't have anyone like that in the organization. Gimme.

On the one hand, he was my guy. On the other hand, I'm sad that Botterill has killed my American/NCAA jokes.

This is why he should be traded. You have GMs, competing against one another, who actually think he's a top pairing Dman? Trade that man while you have this market. Trade him!

I tend to agree, but if it happens it'll be fun to see the Marner fireworks, because he's definitely gone in a separate trade (assuming he's not gone for Subban).

If true (big if), Botts continues to dig his own grave.

I'm just at the point where I'm skeptical of Botterill's player evaluations. He's turned over most of the roster to, at best, neutral results.

I'd much rather take a flyer on Burakovsky than Vesey.

He's had two years to make the team better and has failed. Although I think the trade that shall not be named was a disaster, I'm purely focused on place in the standings. By that metric, there's no evidence he knows how to improve a hockey team.

I'm not sold he's a failure or anything, I just think his first two seasons probably should have burned his benefit of the doubt.

I don't see why we should trust Botterill at all.

Happy to see the McCabe for Vesey debunked. I'm not a huge McCabe fan, but that would be a brutal trade.

Vesey is an American who played in the NCAA, Botterill's cocaine.

Didn't you just say yesterday GMs aren't stupid? ?

Prior to coming to Buffalo, Tage had 20 points in 46 AHL games. So no, he hadn't proven anything. I'm well aware of what Botterill said, I just think it's a bunch of hogwash. True or not, there's literally nothing else he can offer to explain Tage being in the NHL all year.

Yea I'm more interested in trading with Fenton than I am in acquiring Zucker.

Tage spending all season in the NHL while Nylander played in Rochester continues to be one of the great mysteries from last season.

For Point, I assume?

I'm not entirely sure that's true. What Toronto will ultimately take when they know they have to trade him may be different than what they're willing to take before they know. I'm sure they'd prefer to still find a way to move Marleau and/or Kadri.

He's a depth scorer and we could use more depth scoring. If Botterill thinks he's an answer in the top-6, however....

How about needlessly giving Seabrook a retirement contract when he was clearly in decline? Anyway, I think one factor you're not fully taking into account is the elimination of backdiving congrats. The Hawks benefitted greatly from Keith and Hossa on deals that are no longer possible. Maybe you're right that it ultimately won't matter a lot, but I don't think that book has been written yet.

ROR aside (you have to admire my personal growth by not responding with fury!), thinking Berglund and/or Mittelstadt are suitable 2C options isn't exactly confidence inspiring, ya know?

I also think there's a distinction to be drawn between paying your stars not mattering to the cap versus the cap not mattering at all. Teams rarely, if ever, regret paying their top players. Overpaying the middle tier, however, regularly weakens teams as they try to stay under the cap.

I tend to agree, but they had 6 more wins than we did last year. Teravainen wasn't traded all too long ago because of the cap. Edit: And even if the Leafs manage to keep Marner (as I expect they will), losing Kapanen because of Marleau's contract isn't exactly a trivial loss. It doesn't always matter, but it shouldn't just be dismissed.