Welcome to another WHL Best of the 2010s feature where we profile the best WHL players from the 2009-10 season all the way to the 2019-20 season. Players are judged based on what they did in each division. This means if a player spent time in multiple divisions, their placement will be judged based on what they did separately while in each division. Don’t forget to vote on our Twitter page, @WHLonA51 to help determine which player will be crowned the best WHL player of the 2010s. We hope you enjoy.
Although his time in the WHL was short, Dylan Cozens was one of the best players of his era. In 179 games, he scored 95 goals and recorded 223 for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He was also a prominent member of Team Canada during his time in junior playing winning two Golds and a Silver.
Dylan Cozens jumped into the WHL during the 2016-17 season after his Yale Hockey Academy Prep season came to a close, he would dress in three regular-season games before becoming a fixture in the lineup during the Hurricanes playoff run. Despite being one of the youngest players on the team, he would finish with eight points in 12 games. It was a pretty good start to his WHL career.
In his first full season, Cozens won WHL Rookie of the Year after scoring 22 goals and recording 53 points in 57 games. Once again he was dominant in the playoffs with seven goals and 13 points in 16 games. While his first full season was special, it was only the start.
In 2018-19, Cozens exploded for 34 goals and 84 points in 68 games. Although Lethbridge lost in the first round, he put up eight points in seven games including four goals. That season, he also won Gold for Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky tournament while participating in the World U18s.
2019-20 was Cozens’s last WHL season and arguably his best. After being named captain, he scored 38 goals in 59 games finishing with a career-high 85 points. During the season, he also won Gold for Canada at the World Juniors and was named to the WHL East All-Star Team. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to properly end his WHL career as the pandemic struck late in the season.
Few players were as good in such a short amount of time as Cozens. It is disappointing to see his career end the way it did as he was taking his game to another level in 2020. Still, a worthy member of our Best of the 2010s list.