The problem with trading either of them involves how Buffalo is built and the nature of why they are built that way.

Adams has been a huge vibes and locker room culture guy. He has said numerous times that he wants guy who want to be in Buffalo, and Both Cozens and Power have expressed their desire to be there. Adams will value that much higher than he would an unknown quantity. If you look at the Eichel trade, he got a guy back in Tuch who grew up rooting for the Sabres and his dream growing up was to wear a Sabres sweater. You add the years of control, the contract for Cozens, and their potential given their ages and I'm not sure Winnipeg has the assets Adams would want for him to consider trading either of them.

The Jets have some excellent players, but most of them don't fit the age range for the Sabres core. They have some excellent forward prospects also, but again that is a huge strength for the Sabres as an organization. Their biggest areas of need are a top 4 Dman, and a starting goalie to bridge the gap to Levi being ready for the starters role. Losing Power instantly makes their top 4 D worse, and losing Cozens while probably not as painful for the team removes a player the organization loves and a kid who basically checks every one of Adams boxes and a few boxes Adams doesn't need checked. (size, compete, skill, wants to be a Sabre, good skating, great in transition, and he has some jam to his game).

Do you mean one of Connor/Helle/Samburg/Perfetti or all of them? You can't mean all of them, could you?

The problem with trading either of them involves how Buffalo is built and the nature of why they are built that way.

Adams has been a huge vibes and locker room culture guy. He has said numerous times that he wants guy who want to be in Buffalo, and Both Cozens and Power have expressed their desire to be there. Adams will value that much higher than he would an unknown quantity. If you look at the Eichel trade, he got a guy back in Tuch who grew up rooting for the Sabres and his dream growing up was to wear a Sabres sweater. You add the years of control, the contract for Cozens, and their potential given their ages and I'm not sure Winnipeg has the assets Adams would want for him to consider trading either of them.

The Jets have some excellent players, but most of them don't fit the age range for the Sabres core. They have some excellent forward prospects also, but again that is a huge strength for the Sabres as an organization. Their biggest areas of need are a top 4 Dman, and a starting goalie to bridge the gap to Levi being ready for the starters role. Losing Power instantly makes their top 4 D worse, and losing Cozens while probably not as painful for the team removes a player the organization loves and a kid who basically checks every one of Adams boxes and a few boxes Adams doesn't need checked. (size, compete, skill, wants to be a Sabre, good skating, great in transition, and he has some jam to his game).

Yes going to be ugly, basically what you would have taken for scheifele when he first started second contract, and what you would have taken for trouba after his rookie year.

No. No team would ever expect that type of return for those guys. Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. That's it. That's real trade value for those guys because that actually happened. At the time, Hall was better than Cozen is now. It has to be realistic.

A big problem with moving either of these players for Buffalo is contract however. Cozens is locked in to a very reasonable contract for a 2c for the next 7 seasons. And Owen Power was a No 1 OA pick 2 years ago who hasn't been disappointing in any way.

Cozens being so young would mean that they would need to acquire a new legit 2C that has a comparable contract. Boldy isn't a C, but similar in value I believe for Minny and Zegras for Anaheim (who will likely bring in a higher AAV).

I don't believe that BUF would include Cozens in any deal for a comparable player though, because of his intagibles and the fact that he's a known commodity to them so they would need to be acquiring a player of a significantly higher tier (with term) to even consider moving Cozens.

Much of the same can be for Power, the value of the player to the franchise likely outweighs his value league-wide so they would have to be acquiring a player who is young, with term, and of a higher level of player.

Being strong down the middle and on D is extremely important (IMO) to winning in the playoffs so moving a young talented second line center and a defensemen who can already provide top 2 dman minutes for you is unnecessary

Great feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for. Don't get caught up in the Winnipeg Jets. Just the team I picked to make the thread with. I am purely looking for the value of those players. Not what Winnipeg has to offer.

You are the first person I have ever seen on here with a clear knowledge and known direction of a team. I hate hearing they are untradable. That is not even realistic in any world.

Great job!

Very good points. Let's look at it this way. Both players demand a trade. What is the value?