Cozens instead of signing Soderberg, Asplund In for Ladd, Pass on the trade, Ladd is useless. Okposo plays a good 4th line role for a RW needy team. Getting Kuemper is senseless. Expansion will snag one of them.

I can see the logic with soderberg, especially with covid it may be worthwhile to let cozens have another year of development

Cozens is more than ready for a sheltered role.

What would be a option for goalie that wouldn’t get claimed in the expansion draft then?

a cheaper acquisition and on an expiring deal. I.e. Mrazek, Miller, Greiss etc.

I like him, just the mittlestadt situation is a cautionary tale

They throw him at 2C... He still needed a year in the AHL before a 3C role. Cozens is miles ahead of Mittelstadt and his Leash will be very short. They can't afford to ruin him.

Cozens is a lot better. Mittlestadt only put up points playing high school hockey and in the world juniors. Cozens has been dominant in the WHL. And played a huge role for Canada. They will at least give him a 9 game tryout if he’s not ready he can go back to the WHL.

The chl rule is so dumb, they should at least amend it to allow first rounders to play in ahl even if they're still chl eligible

Oh I know. Isn't there a lawsuit ongoing for that nonsense?

As far as I know nhl/chl just extended it

of course they did

The only reason for the Ladd trade was to get someone who kills penalties around the same cap hit. It's obviously not ideal but neither are good and at least Ladd fits a need.