Buffalo Sabres: Deeper dive into Dylan Cozens’ season

Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens had an up-and-down season in 2021-22. Here are some expectations for him next season.

Current Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens is currently playing for Team Canada in the men’s world championship. But not too long ago, he completed his second NHL season.

According to Hocky-Reference, Cozens registered 13 goals and 25 assists in 79 games played with the Buffalo Sabres last season. He did better compared to his rookie season where he scored only 4 goals and recorded 9 assists in 41 games played during a shortened season.

Next season’s expectations for Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens

There are fans out there who think Dylan can produce more which is fair because he’s a good player and is viewed as one of the cornerstones on this team. But let’s not forget, next season will be his third in the NHL and he’s only 21 years old.

He definitely improved from his rookie season which was expected but going into next year, I’m predicting it will be a breakout season for Cozens. With the players around him, he can definitely score 20-25 goals, maybe even 30.

It takes time to develop players in the NHL and going forward, he’ll be a star in this league and he’ll definitely be a huge part of this team in time. We saw the same thing occur with Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, so it is appropriate to predict Cozens is next in line.

So far, Cozens’ solid play in the IIHF World Championships gives us a reason to believe a potential breakout season is on the horizon. Through six games, he has five points, two power play goals, and five in the plus-minus category.

Further, head coach Don Granato’s ability to get the best out of his young players gives us another reason to believe Cozens is on the verge of stardom in the NHL. We will ultimately find out starting in October.

(Statistics provided by Hockey Reference and IIHF.com)