Day 2 Notebook | Cozens talks all-situations role, Malenstyn reflects on trade

Lindy Ruff has high expectations when it comes to the role Dylan Cozens will play for the Buffalo Sabres – and not just on offense.

“I think he can just be a complete player,” Ruff said Thursday, during the second day of training camp at KeyBank Center.

“He's got everything. He's got size. He's got a great shot. I watched a lot of the goals he scored last year. I think the ceiling is high for him when it comes to offense and defense. He's got the tools to get himself in the right place to score. And he's got great tools to help defend.”

Kevyn Adams had a similar message when he spoke to Cozens during the offseason.

“I said to Dylan, when you look at Stanley Cup teams, man, you need guys like him,” Adams recalled.

Ruff, Adams, and Cozens are aligned in their vision for the 23-year-old, who enters this season intent on continuing his path as an all-situations centerman.

It’s a track Cozens has been on since he entered the NHL as a 19-year-old in 2020. Late in that season, he was tasked for the first time with defending top opposing centers, including multiple assignments against Sidney Crosby. He’s been a power-play regular, a 30-goal scorer in 2022-23, and last season became one of the team’s most frequent penalty killers.

The next step, he said, is putting it all together.

“I just want to be trusted in all situations,” Cozens said. “A guy that’s relied on defensively and offensively. I think that I have that and now it’s just about using that. I’m really excited to get going here and establish myself as the player I know I can be.”

Cozens said after last season that he was disappointed with his offensive production, having scored 18 goals and 47 points in 79 games while taking strides in his defensive play. He had set season highs in goals (31) and points (68) the season prior.

That career-best 2022-23 campaign was precipitated by a productive showing at the IIHF World Championship the prior spring, a feat he replicated this past May. Cozens scored a Worlds-leading nine goals for Canada and was selected to the all-tournament team.

In addition to the offensive confidence boost, Ruff said the box-plus-one defense system he is implementing should be similar to what Cozens experienced with Canada, albeit with variations on the what’s asked from the centerman that differ from team to team.

“To go there and play the way I did and produce the way I did, it definitely was good for me to finish the season like that on a positive note,” Cozens said. “I’m looking to carry that over into here and just keep it rolling.”

Cozens said he’s stronger than ever following a productive summer and the most focused he's ever been.

Now, Adams said, he just needs to be himself.

“I think as a young player he was, last year, maybe putting a little bit of pressure that, ‘I have to live up to a contract. I have to score a certain amount of goals,’” Adams said.

“I just told him, ‘I just want you to be the best version of yourself every day and compete,’ and the rest of his talent will take over. But yeah, we need him to be a go-to guy.”

Here are more notes from Day 2 of Sabres camp.

1. Ruff said you can expect the team’s top forwards – Cozens included – to continue to see time on the penalty kill.

“I like using top players,” he said. “Over the years, you can look at Michael Peca, Derek Roy, guys like that. You look at around the league, the counterpunch when you have your best players on the ice. The value in maybe scoring that that big shorthanded goal because a better offensive player is out there, as long as he's defending well. So, we really feel like we have like six or eight penalty killing forwards.”

2. Ruff gave a positive update on Rasmus Dahlin, who did not practice after sustaining an injury early in Wednesday’s session.

“[He’s] doing well, just will probably miss a couple days of practice,” Ruff said. “So, nothing too serious.”

Dahlin watched the first practice session on Thursday from the bench. Ryan Johnson skated with the NHL group in his absence.

3. The Sabres offered a look at potential forward lines and defense pairs on Thursday, although variations were made throughout the session. Here’s how the lines and pairs looked to start:

Later in the practice, Krebs took repetitions alongside McLeod while Greenway skated alongside Lafferty.

4. Beck Malenstyn said he was initially shocked when he received word that he had been acquired by the Sabres from the Capitals in exchange for a second-round pick. Malenstyn had been drafted by Washington, won the Calder Cup with their AHL affiliate in Hershey, and had just completed his first full season in the NHL.

His shock transformed into optimism following discussions with Adams, who has been vocal about the physical, up-tempo presence he expects Malenstyn to add to the Sabres’ lineup.

“After having some phone calls with the staff here, really got a grasp for what this team could look like in the future moving forward, know what my role could be within that, made me super excited,” Malenstyn said.

5. Malenstyn was acquired by the Sabres on June 29, the second day of the NHL Draft. Two days later marked the start of free agency, when he received a surprise call from Nicolas Aube-Kubel, his linemate this past season in Washington.

“He called me and said, ‘Hey, I found two apartments beside each other,’” Malenstyn recalled. “I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ Then he let me know the news that he was going to be coming here as well. It took a lot of pressure off me.”

Malenstyn and Aube-Kubel have continued to skate as linemates during the opening days of camp, often with fellow newcomer Sam Lafferty as their center. The three players share qualities in their physicality (all three would have led Sabres forwards in hits last season) and speed (they each posted top skating speeds that in the 93rd percentile of the league or higher).

They also should bring a defensive element to the game. Malenstyn was on the ice for 562 defensive-zone faceoffs at 5-on-5 last season, the third-highest total in the NHL. He was tasked with matching up against opposing top lines, often with Aube-Kubel alongside him.

“We were tasked a lot of the time with taking on the other team’s top line and had that responsibility, which was great,” Malenstyn said.

“Having your first full season in the NHL shape out that way put a lot of pressure on me but really allowed me to look and see I can do this. This is a role I can play, I can take a lot of pride in and be successful in. Having that confidence that if you can do those defensive things well successfully every night you can come out on the winning side more than you lose.”

Here are the forwards Malenstyn saw the most last season in terms of 5-on-5 ice time: Tyler Toffoli, Anders Lee, Bo Horvat, Mathew Barzal, Jack Hughes, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sebastian Aho.

“You get to play against some great players, man. Lining up against some of those guys, you have to pinch yourself. It’s pretty comfortable,” he said. “It’s something I took a lot of pride in and had fun doing.”

6. The Sabres will hold their first scrimmage of camp Friday at 10 a.m. Stayed tuned to Sabres.com for updates and interviews.