2025 Ottawa Senators Report Cards: Nick Cousins

Staff Grade: C+, Reader Grade: C+

Nick Cousins came to Ottawa on a one-year deal, fresh off winning a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers. He was signed because of his Cup pedigree and his ability to get under players' skin – remember, nearly 30% of NHLers said he was the most punchable player in the NHL just the season before.

It's hard to know what to make of his season in Ottawa. Even after the research for this write-up, I still am confused about if his season was a success or a disappointment. The answer is kind of both. He came in saying he was looking for a bigger role than just being a fourth-line role player, but he settled in as mostly a fourth-line role player. His 6 goals and 9 assists in 50 games were fine, not amazing.

He played 5 of Ottawa's 6 playoff games and didn't score any points. His 11:54 per game was 18th on the team during the season; during the playoffs, this dropped to 9:20, ahead of only Adam Gaudette (and the lone game of Matthew Highmore). Clearly, as the games grew more intense, he was trusted less. But, I would be remiss to talk about his season without mentioning his knee injury. He missed 30 games, and it's possible that he still wasn't quite ready for the toils of playoff hockey and had to play fewer minutes per game. He showed impressive resilience, rehabbing what could've been a season-ending injury and coming back in time for the postseason.

Cousins played the season essentially as an energy player. He had a total of 5 minutes on the powerplay and 37 seconds on the PK, so he was pretty well exclusively used at even strength. Per Natural Stat Trick, he had a 50.8% expected goals-for percentage at 5v5 (50.4% in the playoffs), which honestly is a pretty good number for a fourth-liner. He's not really expected to drive play, and it's not like he has incredible scoring talent (6 goals on 6.7 expected goals on the season, per Hockey Viz), so being above 50% on the year means he wasn't a possession liability. I tend to think of Cousins as a hitter, but his 85 hits were behind guys like Zack Ostapchuk (86), Michael Amadio (108), and Tim Stützle (130). Even if we normalize based on ice time, his 8.56 hits/60 were behind Brady Tkachuk (obviously), but also Ostapchuk, Noah Gregor, and Cole Reinhardt. He was credited with 26 blocks, which, again normalized by ice time to 2.62 blocks/60, was 16th on the team. I guess if you're holding your own in terms of shot metrics and aren't killing penalties, you won't get a lot of blocks. One place he did stand out was penalties, with his 41 PIMs fourth on the team, and his 0:49 in penalties per game fifth.

He only took part in one fight, against Calgary's Brayden Pachal, so the rest of those PIMs were minors. Being fourth on the team in PIMs isn't necessarily a great thing, but he was credited with drawing 16 penalties while taking 19, and -3 is a lot better than I would've expected. My own bias told me he was a penalty liability, but only getting called for 3 more than he drew is pretty good given his reputation.

Maybe the best way to understand Cousins' season is anecdotally. He had a penchant for both boneheaded and inspirational moments. Back on October 25, against the Golden Knights, the Sens were leading 4-3 late in the third. Then, with 5 minutes left, Cousins took a needless interference penalty. Vegas scored on the powerplay, regained momentum, and scored the go-ahead goal a minute later. His penalty arguably snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. In the very next game, on October 27, Ottawa looked down and out against the Avalanche. Though the score was only 2-0, they had been thoroughly outplayed. Then, in the third, Brady Tkachuk scored to give the Sens some life, and Nick Cousins scored the goal that made it 2-2. It was a clutch goal from a guy trying to breathe life into the team. The Avs ended up winning 5-4, but Cousins showed his mettle just 2 days after costing the Sens a win.

To me, that was kind of the Cousins story. He would take undisciplined penalties and even received two fines (though the one for shooting pucks during warmup at Stolarz was silly), but he also scored the first goal against the Blackhawks on April 15 that led to Ottawa coming back from their deficit to force OT, and he scored the team's first goal against Calgary on December 19 that snapped the team out of their stupor and got them to actually start playing in what became an OT win. He wasn't noticeable every game, but he was far more noticeable than an average fourth-liner, and it was for a mix of good and bad reasons.

Overall, I think a C+ is a fair grade. He met expectations. He didn't cost the team as much as you might've worried, but he also didn't help the team as much as you might've hoped. An injury cost him some time down the stretch. He's definitely got a couple NHL years left, but I'm not sure he showed enough to get another chance in Ottawa. Especially if he wants an expanded role, he's gonna have to go somewhere like San Jose or Chicago that's looking for veterans to insulate their emerging stars. I wouldn't say no to him on another one-year league-minimum deal, but I wouldn't want to commit more than that. If he is gone, he had one fight as a Senator, and I'd like to end with that highlight. He lost the fight, but he showed he was willing to stand up for his team, despite being 3 inches shorter and 25 lbs lighter than Pachal. That's the kind of fighting spirit that's kept him in the NHL and will make him continue to be a favourite of his teammates (and a thorn in the side of his opponents).