This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Nick Cousins
Ottawa Senators Center
Ten goals of finishing below what the chances were worth, on a club that won the Stanley Cup.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | PHI | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.0 | 8:49 |
| 2015-16 | PHI | 36 | 6 | 5 | 11 | +5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 41 | 14.6 | 10:44 |
| 2016-17 | PHI | 60 | 6 | 10 | 16 | -6 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 99 | 6.1 | 12:00 |
| 2017-18 | ARI | 71 | 12 | 7 | 19 | -7 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 119 | 10.1 | 12:52 |
| 2018-19 | ARI | 81 | 7 | 20 | 27 | -8 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 144 | 4.9 | 13:33 |
| 2019-20 | MTL/VGK | 65 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 0 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 115 | 8.7 | 13:31 |
| 2020-21 | NSH | 52 | 5 | 13 | 18 | +4 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 60 | 8.3 | 13:22 |
| 2021-22 | NSH | 68 | 9 | 13 | 22 | -8 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 103 | 8.7 | 12:28 |
| 2022-23 | FLA | 79 | 9 | 18 | 27 | -1 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 102 | 8.8 | 11:02 |
| 2023-24 | FLA | 69 | 7 | 8 | 15 | +1 | 64 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 111 | 6.3 | 12:11 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 592 | 71 | 109 | 180 | -19 | 312 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 900 | 7.9 | 12:25 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
69 games for Florida, 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points, 64 penalty minutes, 12:11 a night and plus-1, with 3 game-winners. He took 48.9 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 829 minutes, the 45th percentile, and his ice went 23-22 against an expectation of 33.44-34.99.
Ten goals of finishing below what the chances were worth and thirteen fewer conceded than they called for. Thirteen goals of crease surplus on a club that won the Stanley Cup is most of what a fourth-line plus-1 was made of.
The Finesse Game
137 attempts at a median of 25 feet with 38 per cent of them from inside twenty, 111 of those on goal, converted at 6.3 per cent against a career 7.89 across 900 shots.
A career 7.89 per cent across 900 shots and 71 goals in 592 games. He is not a scorer and has never been one; 109 career assists on twelve minutes a night is the honest measure of what the hands do.
The Physical Game
He is 5-11 and 191 and took 64 penalty minutes.
312 career penalty minutes in 592 games. He is a small man who plays a loud game — he finishes checks well after the puck has gone, chirps constantly, and takes the retaliation penalty as often as he draws one. Ten seasons of it have made him useful to six organisations.
The Intangibles
Sixty-eighth overall in 2011 by Philadelphia, ten seasons, six organisations, 180 points in 592 games and a Stanley Cup in Florida.
A career minus-19 across ten seasons on mostly poor clubs. He signed in Ottawa at 31 to play twelve minutes and irritate people, which is precisely what he has always been paid for.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 829 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.9%
- 45th pct
- Shot attempts
- 55%
- 89th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 23 for, 22 against. Expected: 33.4 and 35.0.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 4 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 437 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 64 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 with FLA · 829 minutes at five-on-five
- Sam Bennett32%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- FLA took 53.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.9% — 4.8 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 829 minutes at five-on-five — 41st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niko Mikkola | 49.5% | 48.4% | 52.5% |
| Eetu Luostarinen | 50.9% | 47.8% | 55.5% |
| Sam Bennett | 55.0% | 45.3% | 56.2% |
49.5% together, 48.4% for him apart and 52.5% for Mikkola apart. Mikkola was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
137 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 22 feet. 38% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 18% from beyond forty.