Senators Hoping To Re-Sign Nick Cousins

Nick Cousins had a more impactful second season with the Senators in 2025-26 compared to his first year with the team.  As a result, it appears GM Steve Staios would like to keep him in the fold a little longer.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the team has informed Cousins’ representatives that they’d like to re-sign him for next season.

Back in the 2024 offseason, it took until the end of August for Cousins to sign, allowing Ottawa to get him for $800K, only a little above the minimum salary.  Given how things went the following year when he had 15 points in 50 games, he ultimately settled for a nominal raise this season, inking a one-year, $825K just before free agency opened up to ensure there wouldn’t be a repeat of the year before.

It wouldn’t be shocking if Cousins has a bit more leverage this time around.  The 32-year-old played in all but one game this season, while chipping in with 169 hits and 92 penalty minutes in 11:25 per night of playing time.  He remained a regular on the fourth line in the playoffs against Carolina, chipping in with an assist and 16 hits in their four-game series.

Cousins has had success in a bottom-six role for a while now, allowing him to carve out a 723-game career thus far across parts of a dozen seasons.  However, he hasn’t stayed in the same place for very long as he has seen action with seven different organizations already.

However, in a UFA market that isn’t the deepest, Cousins should be able to secure a much better contract this time out.  AFP Analytics projects that the veteran could land a two-year deal worth a little more than $2MM per season.  Even if the Sens aren’t comfortable going that high to a fourth liner, he could still plausibly at least double the AAV of his deal this season and perhaps get more than one season.  Given how he has bounced around, a multi-year commitment from Ottawa would certainly have to be appealing.

It took until June 30th last year for a deal between the two sides to get done.  We’ll find out soon enough if it will be another prolonged negotiation this time around or if they’ll be able to get something worked out a little earlier this time around.