The Ottawa Senators were looking to add another piece of depth to their roster late in the 2024 free agency. To do that, the Senators signed 31-year-old Nick Cousins to a one-year, $800,000 contract on Aug. 29.
Cousins had spent the past two seasons with the Florida Panthers and was a good role player who provided leadership to both of Florida's Stanley Cup teams.
With winning the 2024 Stanley Cup last season, the Senators had hoped Cousins would bring over his championship pedigree to a young Senators team. However, the Cousins signing hasn't gone exactly as the Senators envisioned, and it's becoming a problem.
Cousins has disappointing deeply with the Senators this season
Cousins has played in all 19 games so far for the Senators this season, but he has disappointed deeply with recording just four points and a -2 rating. Cousins has just one goal on the season as well.
Cousins went pointless in the first seven games of the season. Then, Cousins followed up with recording four points in the next three games.
Signs pointing for Cousins to be a good role player were pointing in the right direction, but now he has gone cold and is hurting the Senators.
Cousins has gone pointless in the past eight games and his ice time isn't getting better. Over the past six games, Cousins has yet to play 10 minutes of ice time. Last night in the Senators' 3-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights, Cousins had just 5:01 of ice time. Cousins' ice time against Vegas was his lowest in a game all season.
When Cousins entered this season, he did become a trade bait piece due to him being on a cheap expiring contract. With Cousins having a disappointing season, it could become an option that the Senators prefer to trade him and get something back in return and have an AHL player in Belleville get NHL experience.
If the Senators are going to get hot and snap their four-game losing streak to climb back up in the Eastern Conference standings, Cousins needs to be better. Tomorrow night's game against the Vancouver Canucks offers another chance for Cousins to start getting hot and provide an extra offensive boost for the Senators.