Dylan Cozens has agreed to a long-term extension – and the Buffalo Sabres will hope the investment in the young promising player will pay off.
The deal is worth a total of $49.7 million over seven years, which averages out to $7.1 million per season, according to the team.
The move to sign Cozens as he is having a breakout season, with 43 points (17 goals) in 49 games thus far.
He is on pace with 71 points this year, assuming he appears in 81 games.
While the Sabres would be more than happy with that production, it has to be taken into account that his shooting percentage is quite high this year at 13.7 percent.
In his first two seasons, Cozens shot 6.5 and 8.1 percent.
So that will likely come down – considering the greatest goal scorer of this generation, Alex Ovechkin has averaged only a 12.9 shooting percent over his career.
That said, Cozens has certainly taken his game to another level and is driving play at even strength.
Hockey analytics website JFreshHockey gives him a 74 percent offensive grade over his three-season career.
Although they are different players, Cozen’s contract compares to Clayton Keller‘s eight-year deal, which he signed in September 2019, that carries a $7.15 million cap hit per year.
Keller, who is now 24 years old, slumped after a promising rookie season – so it was even a riskier bet at the time.
However, he has rebounded since then and has just appeared in his season All-Star game with the Arizona Coyotes.
This season Keller has 42 points in 51 games.
The risk for the Sabres is hoping that Cozens continues to be a productive player.
But even if Cozens’ play does dip after this season, if he can get the Sabres consistently between 50 and 60 points, it’s not terrible.
If he does continue his current place, well – it will be a bargain
The Sabres will have $24 million in cap space next season, so the team can afford to take the investment.
