29 replies to this topic

[Triumph]

You're still comparing Brylin and Kozlov. There is no comparison. Kozlov is not a hard working player, he's actually rather lazy. He does have very good playoff numbers, though. There is no similarity between the two players at all except that they are Russian.

No expert from Manitoba predicted it, everyone around the league said it and thought it. You're telling me when someone comes in and scores 30 goals at 23 that that's all people think they're capable of? They've hit their NHL prime? Kozlov was supposed to be an elite scorer and he never made it there.

He's 30 years old with 9 years of NHL experience. A lost cause. He wouldn't unseat any of the Devils and he hasn't come close to 30 goals in years. He can play on any line, but he shouldn't, because his salary and talent are too high for him to be doing that. Only a team like the Red Wings could afford to have such a good player as Kozlov on their bottom 2 lines.

If the Devils had a big scoring winger, I'd be all for adding Kozlov, but he's not a very good player right now. And he certainly hasn't had a good career.

['7']

It has more to do with the league wide drop in scoring, as soon as it really hit in about 96, kozlov's numbers were affected, as were everybody else. Nobody has ever though of him as a bust.

back in 94, just scoring 30 on a run & gun team in your rookie year does not cause shockwaves throughout the NHL, especially when you have Selanne scoring 76 the year before.

he settled into a 25 goal scorer who can, and will score 30 goals again. He had 29 in 79 games back in 99.

being able to play on any line shows that he's versatile, so what's wrong with that? He can easily take Friesens place and Jeff could move down to the 3rd line.

[Triumph]

I still don't understand how Kozlov is a 25 goal scorer. He hasn't scored 25 goals in 4 years. He's not on pace to do it this year.

I guess for every Selanne there's a Joey Juneau. Kozlov just turned out to be Joey Juneau.. peaked early, then when the NHL tighetened down on B scorers like him, he stopped scoring.

Being able to play on any line shows that he's not talented enough or didn't put enough effort into staying on the top two lines in Detroit. His squabbles with Bowman are well documented. Players who score 30 goals in their first few seasons shouldn't ever be back on a third line unless there is a talent problem or an effort problem.

When Kozlov starts being traded for more than 3rd round picks to last place teams, maybe I'll believe that he's as solid as you say.

['7']

Kozlov was in the Hasek deal, so the guy does have some value around the league.

the NHL tightens down even more in the playoffs, yet Kozlov is still able to score. Under Bowman and with the NHL going to a more defensive league, Fedorov, Yzerman, and Shanahan also saw there numbers fall, Kozlovs fell too but he became a better 2 way player.

Fedorov scored 30 his first couple of seasons, and he's played on the 3rd line.

[Triumph]

The Hasek deal can't be evaluated like that. Hasek demanded to be dealt in 48 hours, I believe. There was little market for him other than Detroit (St. Louis was considered the only other suitor).

But on draft day, when any team could have picked up such a "versitale" asset as Slava Kozlov, Atlanta volunteered a 3rd round pick for him, and that was evidently the highest offer. Blame it on Buffalo's financial woes if you like, the fact is that Buffalo still could have used a prospect instead of a pick back.

Fedorov has played on the third line. What's your point? Fact is, Fedorov still put up a point a game or thereabouts on the "third line", whereas Kozlov's numbers dipped sharply.

['7']

And Fedorov's numbers dipped sharply too. He was scoring in the 60's (he was actually scoring teens get it? ) when earlier in his career he was putting up anywhere between 85-120pts a season.

Kozlov is no Fedorov though so he's probably not going to average a point per game, but everybody had sharp declines in scoring, it was the bowman factor, and the NHL factor.

Kozlov asked for a trade too, and was coming off a very serious torn achilles that was cut by a skate. That would lower anybody's trade value, but he's come back strong this year.

I don't know about this 48 hours thing, but Buffalo was considering trading Hasek for a long time.

[Blackjack]

And Kozlov is a UFA next year right? So we're going to trade Gionta for 2/3 a year of Kozlov? We traded Brendan Morrison for a rental, but Kozlov is not #89.

[SBT]

Everytime the SBT hears the name Kozlov, images of devastating but clean shoulder to chin hits come to mind.
Happy images naturally.
Unfortunately, there's been a recent shortage of devastating hits.

[SueNJ97]

Everytime the SBT hears the name Kozlov, images of devastating but clean shoulder to chin hits come to mind.
Happy images naturally.
Unfortunately, there's been a recent shortage of devastating hits.

And I remember what happened in the dressing room after they took Kozlov off. Fetisov waved a dollar bill in front of his face, and asked him if he knew what it was. When Kozlov answered correctly, Fetisov told him, "You're fine, get back out there."
I love that story.

[eddieslobbo]

funny I've never seen Brylin get the snot knocked out of him in the Stanley Cup finals. There are FEW players tougher for their size than Brylin.