No he can't. I've followed him since jr and he is not defensively engaged or reliable enough to be a center. Would be a miss placed and over priced bottom 6er who doesn't play special teams(without forcing a spot for him).
Edit- Middlshat has to figure out how to be an nhl player or Europe is his most likely next desitation.

I think that’s probably a jump. He’s a talented but flawed player. A more likely outcome is that he bounces around the league as a lower end middle 6 guy who can contribute offensively. Those guys always have some value, just gotta find the right situation.

This is pretty accurate imo
Thing is, the “right situation” might just be exactly where he’s at

I think you’re right about him not being a Center,
but the rest of that is off

He can play the PP well
And he’s figured out how to be an NHL player just fine
On pace for around 50pts this season- while playing on the 3rd line

He can not,

Buffalo Declines, that prospect might not even be in are top 25. Mitts might have his flaws, but he's worth more than that.

This package is not getting you Mittelstadt. Only trade involving him has to be as part of bigger trade, or side trade when bigger player is acquired.

Sounds like the same path of Jost

Short answer- no. He is a train wreck at center. He's been replaced by a guy that the avs exposed to waivers, and that guy has looked comparatively brilliant at 3c. He's been a little better on the wing, with jost doing more of the heavy lifting. Mittlestadt was on pace for 48 points a few games ago, probably his best bet is to continue that pace, or better it- on the wing. He's not particularly fast or physical, so a gm (hopefully not ours) is going to have to decide that his skill set is acceptable for a middle 6 left wing role. Maybe a budget team would be OK with him at about 2.5 to put up 50 points with pp2 time. Just don't put him at center. It's like feeding gremlins after midnight, you've been warned.

That’s where my mind was wandering, but I know Jost has been a more complete player in Buffalo and mostly displaced Mittelstadt.

Even with his most generous draft projection, Mittelstadt was always gonna be a player who was dynamic offensively and sketchy defensively. For a player like that, you have to produce enough to offset your defensive shortcomings. Sounds like that hasn’t been the case in his career so far.

Mittlestadt is BUF’s Jost imo.

Jost is at least very reliable defensively. Middleshat is a liablility.

I find no joy in hating on Sabres and stand by my post. It would be a unwise to put him on Colorado's 2nd pp unit and he can not pk. At 2.5m in the bottom 6, he would be required to at least pk. In '23-24 it will be tough to find any team willing to trade for 2.5m, bottom 6, 5v5only winger with effort issues. He needs to embrace being fully engaged on both sides of the puck shift in and out before I will say he's figured out how to have a long nhl career. He's got talent, but he's been coasting on it for too long.
Edit- Forgot my Europe portion. I think he will find a situation and deployment more fitting to his liking in Europe rather than hopping around the leagues bottom 6s having coaches try to turn him into something he doesnt look to be.

I wouldn’t go that far to say he’d be out of the league. He’ll be in the league for a few years, but He’s a middle-six forward, who is a capable secondary scorer, but you don’t want too many guys like him on your team because he’s not physical, he makes questionable decisions with the puck, and he’s not good defensively, but if you need a secondary scorer who can play center or wing, but he’s better on the wing.



To me, he’s Marcus Johansson with a ceiling of Ryan Strome, and that doesn’t say much. He will need to play with a strong winger who drives play to make him look like a viable center.

A late second or third would be a good price for him, but no, If Colorado is willing to part with assets, they can do way better

I agree with so much of this, I don't think it's effort that's holding him back though. He's not fast enough or strong enough to make room for himself or anybody else, you combine that with poor decision making, and a real knack for poor defensive play, with kinda average offensive numbers, and you get a guy that's just good enough to stick around.

He's not even a center right now

This.
Theirs still a lot of Sabres fans that are looking at Mittlestadt through rose colored glasses and hoping that he'll be like Tage

Mitts,victor,Bryson,Aspland. Some or all of these guys will be replaced by trade or draft by end of next year

If you're building a winner, no

I hope by the TDL

Mitts has some legit offensive talent though
He’s finally staying healthy this year & u can see it
He’s gonna get 45+ points playing on the 3rd line without much PP time

Take you’re trolling elsewhere

Here is the Skinny.
After 10 games Casey appeared to find his game.
He was on pace for nearly 60 pts and winning about 55% of his face offs.

Then he fell asleep and noticabley stopped even trying.
Dumping the puck into the offensive zone and avoiding any contact while the puck was skated out by the defensive team.
He was a different skater, not caring about the outcome of the game.
I was bemused that Granato would allow him to be so lazy.

Then the Sabres picked up Jost (interesting comparison, except Casey has never been put on waivers) and Casey's game was revived.
He has played well his last 20 or so games which has coincided with Olofsson scoring out burst.
He is now skating the puck into the offensive zone.
Going into the corners to dig out loose pucks and not giving up on the play.
Does he struggle in the defensive zone, yeh but other than the Krebs line all of the forwards perform poorly there.

Put him on Compher's (Jost on steroids) wing with a sniper (ala Olofsson) and he would do just fine, better than he has done for Buffalo.

Let me close, if Granato has kept Casey in the line up, Don must trust Casey's skill set and performance.
That is enough for me to think Casey has earned a spot in the line up.

As to the trade, Buffalo may accept it as it includes a D-man, prospect and a pick.
But if Buffalo were to trade Casey, he would most likely be part of a package for a better player, and not a package of players for him as per @Czu8iks.