Prospects Report | Tyson Kozak off to strong start with Amerks

If you watch any of the team-leading five goals that Tyson Kozak has scored for the Rochester Americans this season, not one has come outside of the blue paint – and that’s just the type of player he is.

Kozak describes himself as a 200-foot player and someone who likes to get to the dirty areas. Sabres assistant coach and former Amerks head coach Seth Appert described him in simpler terms.

“He’s a coach’s dream,” Appert said.

After injuries limited him to just 41 games last season, Kozak has already matched his career high with five goals through eight games to start 2024-25.

The 2021 seventh-round pick has displayed the combination of defensive reliability and offensive touch that made him a standout at prospects events and inspired Rochester assistant coach Vinny Prospal to refer to him as the team’s “Anthony Cirelli,” a nod to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s talented two-way forward.

“I think the main thing is probably just having confidence in myself,” Kozak said. “That’s probably the main thing. It's just feeling good with the puck, trusting my abilities and obviously the players that I play with help out a lot as well.”

Kozak opened the season in the bottom six, scoring two goals on eight shots. He was promoted to the top line alongside first-round picks Isak Rosen and Konsta Helenius for the fifth game of the season, against Cleveland on Oct. 23.

Since then, he’s turned his offense to an even higher level, scoring in his first three games on the top line and grabbing his first assist of the year against Cleveland on Oct. 26.

“I really appreciate the way he plays the game,” Rochester coach Michael Leone said. “I think he's a winning hockey player and what I mean by that is he wins a lot of battles. He forechecks really hard. He tracks like his life depends on it. Every shift he plays it like his last. As a coach you play players you trust, and I really trust him.”

Appert texted Kozak days ago to let him know how proud he was of him and that he was excited to see the start he was having in Rochester.

Despite only spending two injury-limited seasons with Appert, Kozak gained his trust as well.

“He's a throwback player,” Appert said. “He really is. We have a lot of belief in him in our organization. I love coaching him. It's been fun to see.”

During the summer, Kozak worked on the very thing that’s earned him his early season success – getting dirty down low around the net.

Standing at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, Kozak isn’t your traditional big-bodied player that you’d find hanging around the netminder, but he does the job effectively. His physicality near the net has led to bounces going his way.

“I focused on it a little bit during the summer, just trying to get to the dirty areas and find pucks in those areas and be able to put them in the net, but I think it's kind of just puck luck now,” Kozak said. “I mean, I didn't really have very good puck luck. I'd get a lot of chances, and they wouldn't go in, but now it's just kind of puck luck.”

According to Appert, Kozak’s renaissance in offense for the Amerks could’ve came last season if not for injuries.

“We were seeing a lot of offensive things from him in practice last year,” Appert said. “We saw the confidence with the puck making a big step and we thought there was different moments of the year last year, he was going to break out offensively and for whatever reason, it just didn't happen. I think injuries were a big part of that.”

During the time that Kozak was watching from afar, he needed to take his mind off hockey. To do this, he did whatever he could to get ready for when he could return to the ice, but most importantly, he relied on his parents to get him through this time.

“Injuries are always tough. I kind of leaned on my parents,” Kozak said. “I would call them all the time, just trying to get my mind off of hockey. That was kind of the main thing. It's just kind of get my mind away from it, not think about it too much, and then just try and get my body physically and mentally ready for when I came back.”

Now, Kozak is back on the ice and making a difference with the Amerks.

He’ll look to play the down-and-dirty role and continue to put his body on the line for his team, all the while knocking pucks back in off the rebound.

“He's a player whose determination and work ethic are just incredibly high,” Appert said. “That is a young man that when the chips are down, when times are tough or in big moments, you want him in the foxhole with you. That’s just the kind of player he is, that's the kind of person he is, you feel good going into battle with him.”

Prospect Spotlights

Isak Rosen, RW (Rochester, AHL)

In his last four games, the 2021 first-round pick has recorded two goals and picked up five helpers along the way during the Amerks’ five-game win streak.

For the season, he has three goals and seven assists for a team-leading 10 points.

Ethan Miedema, LW (Kingston, OHL)

Miedema (Round 4, 2023) has been productive as of recently, going on a six-game point streak. During the streak he’s scored two goals alongside seven assists including two multi-point games in his last four games.

With eight goals and ten assists on the season, he’s tied for second in goals and is fourth in points for Kingston.

Stiven Sardarian, RW (Michigan Tech, CCHA)

After playing last season at New Hampshire, Sardarian (Round 3, 2021) transferred to Michigan Tech for the 2024-25 season.

In a pair of games in a home-and-home series against Northern Michigan, he recorded three points, including a goal and an assist in the latter one.

It was the second time this season that he recorded points in back-to-back games after scoring a goal and an assist and then getting a goal against Alaska Fairbanks and Clarkson on Oct. 12 and Oct. 25, respectively.