Senators Add Veteran Depth, Ink Nick Cousins to One-Year Deal
Just like the people of Alabama, the Senators really like their Cousins. The Senators signed unrestricted free agent Nick Cousins to a one-year contract worth $800,000.
The forward arrives in Ottawa fresh off a Stanley Cup-winning campaign with the Florida Panthers. Cousins contributed seven goals and 15 points in 69 regular season games before making 12 playoff appearances, where he contributed a lonely assist.
The offence is not what Cousins is renowned for. Although he has recorded multiple double-digit goal-scoring seasons (12 in 2017-18, 10 in 2019-20), he is a complementary depth piece who is loathed by the opposition for his agitating playstyle. His addition fits with the Senators’ direction of adding speed, size and players who are not fun to play against. Together with the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Ridly Greig, David Perron and even Tim Stützle, opponents will hate this forward group.
The Athletic ran an anonymous player poll in which Cousins was the clubhouse leader with 28.57 percent of the votes for the most hated player. The data tracks. NaturalStatTrick’s data shows that of the skaters who have logged more than 200 five-on-five minutes, Cousins' addition gives the Senators three forwards (Tkachuk, Stützle) who rank in the top 30 of the league in penalties drawn per 60 minutes of ice time. Cousins also finished top-10 in the league in hits taken per 60 with 9.75. It turns out that when you are constantly engaged in battles with the opposition, and they don’t like you, they tend to hit you and take liberties. Who knew?
Projecting forward, the addition of Cousins appears to bring the Senators forward group to 12 skaters — before considering whether prospects like Angus Crookshank, Stephen Halliday or Zack Ostapchuk will compete for that extra spot. It would make sense for at least one of these prospects to break camp with the Senators because the organization probably views Zack MacEwen as its 13th forward (or potentially, AHL depth).
The addition of Cousins is intriguing because he is widely portrayed as a centre despite the fact that he only took 32 draws in Florida last season (albeit to a 53.1 success rate). In 2022-23, he only took 144 faceoffs with a 49.3 success rate. Going back even further through the NHL’s faceoff data, it becomes quite clear that Cousins has not played centre regularly since the 2018-19 season when he was playing with the Arizona Coyotes.
The Senators already have Noah Gregor and Zack MacEwen as prospective wingers for that fourth line. Gregor, like Cousins, has some experience playing centre. He did, however, take fewer draws than Cousin did in 2023-24.
If there is any concern beyond the question of whether he can capably handle the centre position, it lies in his isolated defensive impacts.
Last season’s numbers were not great. Cousins did add some value offensively, but his defensive numbers were pretty terrible. It was not just HockeyViz’s data either. Evolving-Hockey’s ‘Total Defence’ metric (DEF) that combines a player’s defensive contributions at five-on-five and while shorthanded rated Cousins as the Panthers’ worst defensive player last season.
For a team that is looking to buoy its five-on-five team defence, the Cousins add could potentially exacerbate a weakness. Fortunately, across the course of Cousins’ career, he has demonstrated some decent defensive chops to go with his modest offensive impacts.
What is interesting is Cousin’s slip in defensive performance while playing for a strong Panthers team. Defensive play tends to age more gracefully than offence when discussing whether this could be part of some age-related decline, but at 31 years old, he is not that old. He did suffer a concussion during the middle of the 2023-24 season, so the injury could at least explain part of the dip, but hopefully, the last two seasons aren’t part of some larger trend.
Even if it is, the cost and the term of the contract are not prohibitive whatsoever. So, if Cousins produces any positive value for the Senators, the deal will be an efficient win for the club. Interestingly, the agent who negotiated it is Newport’s Craig Oster, who also landed Noah Gregor a similar deal earlier this offseason.
Puckpedia lists Crookshank as the 13th forward, but that is inconsequential. Whichever young asset starts the season on the parent roster makes similar money, which leaves the Senators with approximately $1.1 million in cap space. The flexibility affords the team the opportunity to make another depth signing if it chooses. Looking at the state of the blue line, especially on the right side with Travis Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker in depth roles, the addition of another veteran could potentially (read: likely) represent an upgrade.
Poor starts have sunk the Senators’ seasons before they ever had a chance to really get off the ground. There is a ton of pressure on Travis Green to get buy-in from this group and have them playing a structured, cohesive team game right away. Adding veterans to the mix who have enjoyed team success in this league is the safer route. In saying that, if some of these short-term adds don’t perform on the ice, it will be interesting to see how quickly the team transitions to giving the younger players who possess more upside an opportunity to prove their worth.
Other News and Notes:
Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reported that the Senators and the NCC are expected to announce news on the direction of the stalled LeBreton Flats land development deal in the next few weeks. The parties’ current memorandum of understanding to reach a deal expires on September 20th, leaving both parties with a few short weeks to figure out their next steps. The article depicts the NCC as being confident that a deal can be reached with the Senators, while Cyril Leeder expressed disappointment that talks have not progressed as quickly as the organization had hoped. Given the time and efforts already put into place, it would seem odd to simply walk away from any prospective deal now. It all just feels like posturing to get better terms in an agreement.
According to PuckPedia, Tim Stützle has changed agents and is now represented by Claude Lemieux. The commitment to go all-in on pests this offseason is real. Even the players are doing it.
The Athletic’s Corey Pronman recently revealed the Senators as having the fifth-highest rated pipeline of prospects. Although the organization has ranked poorly recently in terms of its drafted prospects, under Pronman’s criteria to include players if they are 22 years old or younger as of Sept. 15, 2024, the Senators’ system rates well on the strength of Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson and Carter Yakemchuk. Both Sanderson and Stützle will be ineligible in next year’s ranking, but it’s a nice reminder that the Senators do have excellent young building blocks in place.