Sabres exclusive: Dylan Cozens reflects on trade ahead of return with Ottawa
Former Sabres center Dylan Cozens reflected on his years with former team in exclusive interview with The Buffalo News ahead of his return with Senators.
Even as the Buffalo Sabres endured a 13-game winless streak in December, Dylan Cozens envisioned the day when he and his teammates finally experienced a playoff game in Buffalo.
The noise and buzz of a sellout crowd in KeyBank Center. Alumni Plaza filled with flag-waving supporters. The sight of fans wearing Sabres jerseys around the city. He dreamed of rewarding their loyalty with high-stakes, postseason games for the first time since 2011. He wanted to make them proud.
Now with the Ottawa Senators, Dylan Cozens, right, was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres with the seventh pick in 2019. Matt Slocum, Associated Press
And, though the Sabres sank to last in the Eastern Conference, he did not lose belief that they could accomplish that goal together. His vision for the future changed with a phone call on the afternoon of March 7. Cozens was traded, along with defenseman Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round draft pick, to the Ottawa Senators for center Josh Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Cozens was devastated. He had a brief, emotional conversation with general manager Kevyn Adams, bid farewell to teammates and left the Sabres’ hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to join the Senators in their playoff race. He debuted the following day and assisted on a goal in a win over the New York Rangers.
“I dreamt every day about what it would be like to be a successful team in Buffalo and how awesome the city would be to play in,” Cozens told The Buffalo News during a phone interview. “I thought about it every single day, and it rattled me that we weren’t able to figure it out, for sure.
“Those are a lot of my best friends in Buffalo, and I always dreamt about getting it done with them and that group. For sure, there’s definitely disappointment that it didn’t work out, but at the end of the day, I’m really happy to be in Ottawa and in the hunt with these guys now. I’m sure I’ll do a little more reflecting and looking back after the season, because right now my focus is on winning games.”
Cozens, 24, played eight games with the Senators before he was forced to shift his focus to the Sabres. He is returning to Buffalo with his new team for the first time as the Senators take on the Sabres on at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The center planned to bring an empty suitcase to gather more of his belongings, and there will be an opportunity to visit with close friends whom he hasn’t seen since the trade.
Walking into KeyBank Center again will conjure memories from Cozens’ 341 games across five seasons with Buffalo. He made his NHL debut here during the Covid 19-shortened season in January 2021. One of his favorite memories with the Sabres was his game-winning goal on the night of Ryan Miller’s jersey retirement and team hall-of-fame induction. Cozens gave the puck to Miller’s son, Bodhi, as a sellout crowd filed to the exits.
“Ryan Miller night, that’s probably going to be one of my favorite goals in my career,” Cozens added. “There’s a lot of really good moments I had in Buffalo that I’ll cherish forever. I couldn’t be more grateful that I was drafted there and started my NHL career there. Obviously, things didn’t work out the way I always thought they would.”
It will be a business trip for Cozens, though.
He is determined to continue to play well in a prominent role for the Senators as they try to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017. They are 6-2, including a five-game win streak, in eight games since the trade. His seven points during that span are tied with Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson for the team lead. Cozens’ three goals are tied for second-most on Ottawa, and he ranks first in hits (31), while his 15:33 ice time per game is seventh among forwards. Tkachuk is the only member of the Senators with more shots on goal than Cozens (20).
Cozens was building toward this during his final weeks with the Sabres. They outscored opponents 8-2 with him on the ice at 5 on 5 across his last 10 games, according to Natural Stat Trick. He already had set career highs in faceoff win percentage and hits, but he wasn’t scoring. Cozens had one goal in 17 games at the time of the trade. He had 11 goals with 31 points in 61 games with the Sabres this season. Consistency was an issue for him and his teammates.
It wasn’t the production he wanted, or the team expected. He totaled 31 goals and 68 points at 21 years old in 2022-23, a performance that earned him a seven-year, $49.7 million contract. His impact had not been the same while the team failed to build on its 91-point finish two seasons ago.
The Sabres’ struggles caused most of the league’s general managers to call Adams about Cozens’ availability. The rumors began to swirl in December and continued until the morning of March 7, when Cozens saw reports on X that he had been traded by Buffalo. He never thought it would happen. Buffalo was his second home. Coincidentally, his uncle lives in Orchard Park, and his grandparents are a short drive across the border in Southern Ontario. There were five years remaining on his contract, and, despite the lack of scoring, he saw himself improving in other areas.
“Obviously, I know I could have played better,” Cozens said. “I could have played way better. I’m the first guy who will be hard on myself, and know I should have played better, but if I produced a little more it wouldn’t have seemed as bad. I think that every mistake or bad play I made, people were just paying attention to that more. I just think that I was in a negative light, and people chose to see that.
“The trade was tough. It was sad. But, at the end of the day, it is what it is. It’s a business. If we don’t perform as a team and I don’t perform, things like that are going to happen. It’s just the reality of it.”
Norris’ 20 goals helped the Senators contend, but general manager Steve Staois wanted to change the makeup of his roster. Cozens was viewed as someone who could help them win tight-checking, high-stakes games late in the regular season and into the playoffs. He is a 6-foot-4, right-handed center with skill and leadership qualities. The Senators weren’t scared off by his shooting percentage dropping from 14.7 to 9 to 7.9 over the past three seasons. They saw untapped potential and someone who could help them win immediately.
It was an emotional trade on both sides. Cozens was an alternate captain and prominent voice in the Sabres’ dressing room. Norris was a best friend of Tkachuk and beloved by the Senators. When Cozens arrived in Ottawa, Tkachuk urged him to play with confidence and encouraged him to speak in front of the team when the situation called for it.
Senators coach Travis Green immediately slotted Cozens in as their second-line center. He was reunited with a former teammate at the IIHF Men’s World Championship, Batherson, and the duo have skated with veteran winger David Perron. Ottawa has outscored teams 6-3 at 5 on 5 with the line on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“I think, right away, the coaches here put a lot of trust in me and gave me a lot of responsibility,” said Cozens, who’s also on Ottawa’s top power-play unit. “When you’re trusted like that, it’s a lot easier to play your game. They have a lot of faith in me here. I just want to go out there and show how good I can be and what player I can be. There’s obviously some big games, right now, so it’s really exciting. I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
Now, Cozens is on the other side of a contentious rivalry. The Sabres and Senators don’t like each other. Most of their meetings are filled with scrums and big hits. Cozens scored the last time the two teams played, and he was given a game misconduct as the result of a heated exchange with former Ottawa winger Vladimir Tarasenko in October 2023.
The Sabres are 28-35-6, 17 points below the Senators in the standings, but they’ve won the two meetings this season by a combined score of 9-1. They’ve altered their rosters since the last meeting in January – Norris has missed the past five games with an undisclosed injury – and, though this game will have increased intention because of the trade, Cozens views it as the latest opportunity to help the Senators gain two points in their push for the playoffs.
“I definitely have motivation to prove myself and prove Ottawa right in trading for me,” he said. “I know the impact I can have in this league. The focus now is getting back to that and helping Ottawa win games.”