Ottawa Senators SIGN Nick Cousins!

welcome S Talk Back ACR scores Mak it two to nothing Shu along kachu score the captain Brady kachu buries it with 118 to go later go s go welcome to S talk my name is Brandon plant and I'm I am your host we have some breaking news today coming out of the nation's capital as the aut Senators have signed free agent center and Stanley Cup champion Nick cousins to a one-year $800,000 deal but before I break that all down I have a couple things I wanted to talk about quickly I know I've been gone the last couple weeks and I have a few very very good reasons why firstly I just started a new job I'm a comms coordinator for a festival here in Ottawa and the festival is coming up in just under a month so it's been really hectic and very very busy and I just started so there's a lot to do a lot to learn and not a lot of time on top of that I've been traveling I just went to Alberta to Calgary and B hiked up rosson lake with my girlfriend uh which was incredible I really really really recommend going to the Rockies one day if you can just absolutely stunning uh the Rockies out there in Alberta um and most importantly you know look I love making these videos I have no regrets whatsoever but I've been doing them for 12 years all right I've been doing essentially a video every other day for 12 years in a row and just like anything in life you need a break you just need a few weeks off to recharge and refresh and that's exactly what I needed that's what I did and let's just say I'm fully recharged I'm completely fired up and ready to go full steam ahead going into the next season of sense talk and another great hopefully season of your Ottawa Senators and we're coming back with a bang to kick off September as this weekend the voice of the autom sers dean Brown joins the show again always a pleasure to talk to Dean he's an absolute Beauty so stay tuned for that in the next few days and a lot of other great interviews and videos are planned and already done so stay tuned for that I'm not going to spoil it we have a lot of content locked up and ready to go so with you know the rookie tournament and camp and preseason and of course the regular season all ramping up here and we're just under 6 weeks away now from the start of the regular season so I'll keep it very simple a lot of content is coming your way in the next few weeks and of course the next few months as we cover your with Sanders for our 12th season here at s talk but yeah um that's about it again I apologize I'm sure you all understand though um sometimes you just got to take care of yourself and you got to take care of Life stuff so needed a few weeks off wanted to travel started a new job um but we're back and we are back with a vengeance my goodness so so excited to start putting out content again some huge interviews some big big videos and of course your auto Sanders returns so uh with that let's get back into the reason you clicked on this video as we talk about Nick cousins the newest Ottawa senator now what I find really interesting about this is look a few weeks ago I put out a video basically talking about you know a few weeks into the free agency period what are some depth options the a standard should look at in free agency to really Shore up the depth on this team cuz for some time now I've been saying look I like the middle six editions we brought in I like the you know the top four you know additions we brought in as well with the third pairing which we'll talk about in a upcoming video for sure and the fourth line the depth is very scarce to say the least all right I mean again we'll talk about the third pairing in a future video but the fourth line going into Camp literally yesterday was Noah Gregor and some ahlers or Fringe nhlers I mean Noah Gregor is not exactly you know he's a fine NHL but he's not a you know a wellestablished Stanley Cup champion you know veteran guy right we didn't really have much on that fourth line and that's exactly what Nick cousins brings to the UT Sanders he's a veteran he's played a lot of games in the National Hockey League and he's a Stanley Cup champion three things that are very very ideal for your fourth line so I love this signing I said they should sign him in my video a few weeks ago and they did just that and in fact according to Bruce gerok they sniffed around Nick cousins around you know the beginning of free agency around July 1st but Nick cousins at the time wanted more term and more money look I'm not going to lie I like Nick cousins as a player would not go more than one year at around this you know aav so glad they said no to that and said yes to this cuz this is a much more team-friendly deal you're making essentially leak minimum for one year there is no risk and a lot of reward potentially in this signing now according to puckpedia after signing Nick cousins to you know this $800,000 deal the Ottawa Sanders have $1.1 million in projected cap space going into the regular season with 22 active players right now on the roster compiling 13 forward seven defenseman and two golender for that cap hit now with that that's enough number and rambling and talking about my life let's get into Nick cousins the player Nick cousins is a 31-year-old center who is 5'1 so he's not the biggest player in the world but my goodness does he ever play like a massive player he's a very physical player and he's an absolute agitator he's a rat and I think you saw the thumbnail you probably saw the rats there's a reason we put that we'll talk about that in a few minutes let's just say Nick cousins not exactly the most popular player in the National Hockey League let's just say that now uh speaking of the National Hockey League his career in the National Hockey League has been pretty solid last year in 69 games nice with the Florida Panthers actually the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers could have pluged that a few times this is a Stanley Cup champion we're talking about ladies and gentlemen last year in those 69 games he compiled seven goals and eight assists for 15 total points with a cory4 percentage of 54.5% if you don't know what that means essentially way more often than not when he was on the ice the Panthers had possession of the puck which is a very good sign especially for a fourth line Center who will likely be in defensive situations he was also ranked number six on the Panthers last year in hits and has a knacked for being a clutch player with three game winning goals uh tied for fourth with the Panthers last year including a massive OT Series winner against the Maple Leafs as we all remember um as well had a 53.1% faceof rate now he's played just under 600 games in the National Hockey League at 592 uh scoring 71 goals and 109 assists for 180 points in those 592 games with a COR C4 percentage in those games of 51.5% again I bring that up because you know you know Nick cousins is not a fighter he he could throw them down I guess but he's not a guy that's known for fighting this is not like an Austin Watson type of signing this is a signing that again like I said he's 5'11 but he plays like he's 6'4 he's a very physical player and he's an agitator he's a rat you know he's going to try to get into your head he's going to try to draw penalties he's going to try to make people drop the gloves and agitate them and you know most importantly he plays with that physical Edge so you know around the boards keep your head up around a guy like Nick cousins he's very physical he won't lose those board battles and most importantly for a center obviously through the middle of the ice he's very strong so in both ends of the ice he's a guy that you can basically trust and that's exactly what you want from a veteran fourth line Center who you know shockingly is not really a penalty killer the last two years with the Florida Panthers he's played like six minutes on the penalty kills so I don't think he's going to be a penalty killer but at the same time who who are you really going to put on the penalty kill on the OT Sanders this year so I would definitely give him a shot especially in preseason see what he can do maybe you can develop him into a penalty killer because we definitely need you know that penalty killer that can play down the middle um we don't really have that right now maybe a AIO but you also need a second wave of the penalty kill so I think this is a guy that can definitely get an opportunity on the penalty kill but he's certainly not known first penalty kill abilities but again what he's really known for is his grittiness his tenacity and his agitation I mean my good the S have a team of agitators of rats I mean you got kachuck you got krook shank you got clevin you got David Pon you got Nick cousins now I mean my goodness you got some absolute pests on this team and I'm so so so excited and my goodness how am I forgetting rley Greg as well you got some pest on this team the pesty sends the pesky sends whatever the hell you want to call them they're not going to be fun to play against and that is so exciting for me you know for so long we've been saying that Brady K Chuck's been the only guy the sends that's been dropping them and it's been physical and it's been willing to go that extra mile and you know be that agitating presence the sends slowly have been carving a team to fit that motto and finally it's safe to say in my opinion they are fitting that motto for sure with five or six players arguably going to be on the roster next year full-time that are full-time agitators and rats so uh that's beautiful to see and again he's a strong defensive player which is desperately needed for any bottom six in the National Hockey League League especially the otwa Sanders bottom six who frankly didn't really have any fourth line Center you know Adam godet probably was the best option for the fourth line and no offense to Adam godet that's not exactly sexy Nick cousins is a sexy um you know um asset to bring in for the fourth line purely because of those strong defensive abilities and agitating abilities and Stanley Cup champion pedigree as well this is a guy that brings a lot of experience to the locker room which once again we have to remember is one of the youngest in the National Hockey League and we know we don't really talk about it that much there's been some huge additions and subtractions the last few months so um I'm really excited to see how they all mesh together there's certainly a different um Persona if you want to call it that that this team is going to be bringing next year again the pesy sends the pesty sends whatever the hell works for you works for me because they're going to be playing that style for sure now as I've already mentioned a couple times this brings much needed depth to the bottom six I mean again we desperately needed it and now look with this signing that fourth line looks much better I'm much more comfortable with the depth in that bottom six and throughout the organization um if there's an injury or two I'm much more comfortable in a short-term Gap anyways that we should be okay now or at least much more okay than we would have been just a few days ago literally um but my ideal fourth line going of the year would be a friend of the show Angus crook shank Nick cousins and Noah Gregor as their fourth line with Zach mchu and and Adam godet as the next men up as a 13 forward potentially and as the first call up so um let me know what you think about that potential fourth line in the comment section down below I also wanted to mention this Steve stos I kind of mentioned this with the veterans he's bringing in and the experience he's bringing in to one of the youngest teams in the National Hockey League but he's also targeting Cup winners this is the third Stanley Cup champion that Steve stos has brought in this off season so it's safe to say they wanted to get peskier they wanted to get more veteran ability and some Stanley Cup champion pedigree as well they clearly accomplished all three things that this off season now Timmy s on Twitter showed a really interesting poll um from the athletic that said that just under 29% of the league voted Nick cousins as the most disliked player in the league you can see on your screen he's had some run-ins in the past with the otus Senators as well so yeah this is a guy that you don't want to play against and I bring this up because look I don't know the guy of course but according to journalist like Johnny Lazarus for example he says he was very well-liked in the Florida panther locker room so you know this seems to me like a guy that you would hate to play against but you love to have on this team so um welcome to Ottawa Nick cousins a great great signing a signing that Ottawa desperately needed where you get that fourth line Center who can provide some much needed defensive strength to that fourth line um and brings a lot of tenacity and agitation to an already pretty pesky Auto Sounder lineup so yeah let me know what you think in the comment section down below and with that I'll see you in a few days for the dean Brown interview and uh a lot more content coming your way very very soon so with that thank you all for watching I'll see you in the next one go SS go [Music]