Cozens focused on taking game to next level after 31-goal season

Sabres coach Don Granato has a direct and honest approach with his players. It's how he's always been, allowing him to connect and develop deeper relationships to coax the most out of them.

He's not afraid to challenge them either, veterans or rookies. Especially in the case of Dylan Cozens.

"He told me that he doesn't think I'm anywhere close to the player I can be," Cozens said.

A surprising assessment, considering the 22-year-old just scored 31 goals and racked up 68 points in a breakout campaign that landed him a seven-year contract extension that pays him $47.9 million.

But Cozens isn't sitting back and asking, "What gives?" He's intent on raising the bar even higher.

"He thinks I have so much more to my game," Cozens said. "It means a lot. He wants us all to be the best we can be, and he wants to help us get there. I'm excited to see what he has for me."

He should be ecstatic. Cozens perhaps headlines the laundry list of players who have enjoyed career years with Granato at the helm of the Sabres. It's a similar edict Granato delivered to Tage Thompson, who was fishin' in the dark for 50 goals up until the season's final week.

"He just sees the potential in everyone, and he wants us to get there and he's going to help us get there," Cozens said. "For him to look at my numbers and think I can be way better, it means a lot."

Cozens boasts a well-rounded skill set. He ranked fifth on the team in scoring and was one of four 30-plus goal scorers. He also led the team in the faceoff circle, winning 48 percent of his draws in all situations.

"He has incredible attributes of speed and quickness that he's still not using quite efficiently as he can and will," Granato said.

Cozens came in fourth in several categories this season, including shots (148), shooting percentage (14.19) and third in high-danger scoring chances (75), all at 5-on-5. He's made it a focus to shoot more and work on getting pucks off under pressure and off balance.

"I put more pucks on net this year and they just found their way in," Cozens said. "I've got more of the shooting mentality this year, and pucks just started going in."

The results only reinforced what Cozens already knew about himself. He scored 95 times in 179 regular-season games in the Western Hockey League and was the runner up for the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as the WHL's player of the year.

"I know I can be a goal scorer in this league. To see that happen this year, it felt good for me personally," Cozens said. "I just want to keep getting better and score more goals next year, just build on this year and be a consistent guy.

The first player from the Yukon Territory to be selected in the first round of the NHL Draft, Cozens isn't just about speed, skill and highlight-reel goals. He's got a little old-school hockey player in him, as captain Kyle Okposo succinctly described. Being a kid raised in The Yukon inherently comes with a little grit.

"I want to get better in battles along the wall and being able to win those battles and maintain possession and just keep improving all aspects of my game," Cozens said.

It also, inadvertently, came with a lot of self-imposed pressure. Cozens is quick to admit he's his own worst critic, which can be detrimental to the development of a young hockey player. It's something he's tried to be more forgiving of as he's gotten older.

"I've been really hard on myself in the past years," Cozens said. "I was able to kind of just put games behind me and just focus on helping the team win and that brought me success."

That peace of mind allowed his production to flourish. But Cozens is much more of a goal scorer than a goal setter. He doesn't go into a season with a particular number in mind, just as long as it's larger than last year.

"If I'm a 30-goal scorer now, I want to be a 40-goal scorer next year and just keep getting better and better every year and just improve all areas of my game," he said.

Cozens peeled back the curtain regarding how he will go about that this summer. Finding ice time isn't simple for someone who is from The Yukon. There are few options when it comes to rinks back home. so Cozens expects to spend a good portion of his time in London, Ontario again this summer with teammate Jacob Bryson.

Bryson is just one of several teammates that Cozens will get together with over the summer. A golf trip immediately after the season was also on the offseason agenda.

That's what makes this group of Sabres so special. Most players go their separate ways only to reconvene when training camp starts. Cozens and company plan to take in a good portion of it together.

"It's incredible, there's so many good friends here and away from the rink they're always hanging out," Cozens said. "You need that camaraderie off the ice and we have that.

"That's what makes this group so special and that's what's going to lead us to success is just guys that want to be around each other, guys that want to come to the rink every day because they miss hanging out with their friends. That's something that we have."