With playoff excitement building in Bytown, some Ottawa Senators fans are wondering what trade deadline additions Fabian Zetterlund and Dylan Cozens will add to their team’s chances of success in the 2025 postseason. Both are young and neither has any playoff experience, so the best anyone can tell is what they’ve delivered in the 18 games they’ve played so far in a Senators sweater.
Say what you like about the trades that brought them to Ottawa, but president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios (GM) got more than he gave up to add Zetterlund and Cozens to his roster. Sens fans hope to see the proof of that once the playoffs get underway on April 19.
Here’s a look at how they measure up heading into the postseason.
Dylan Cozens Lives Up to “Workhorse From Whitehorse” Nickname
Young Yukoner Dylan Cozens centres the second line, skating between Drake Batherson and David Perron. The trio gelled immediately and in their first five games together accounted for 70.9% of expected goals at even strength and outscored their opponents 4-0.
In the 18 games Cozens has played with the Senators, his line has racked up 17 goals and 35 points, averaging just shy of two points per game and accounting for over one-third of the Senators’ total points. Cozens himself has put up 11 points in those 18 games putting him on pace for 50 points over an 82-game season. To put all of this into focus, the four players who have skated on the Senators’ top line – Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux and of late, Fabian Zetterlund – have managed just 10 goals and 29 points between them since Cozens joined the team.
Related: 7 Cool Things About Senators’ Dylan Cozens
Cozens also seems to have sparked something in Batherson and Perron. Perron has marked up the scoresheet for six goals and three assists since he began playing with Cozens. Those nine points eclipse what he put up in his previous 23 games.
As for Batherson, before he began playing alongside Cozens he was scoring an average of one goal every four games. Alongside Cozens, he has boosted his production to just over one marker every three games. It’s little wonder Batherson has high praise for the Whitehorse workhorse saying, “Dylan is just so complete all over the ice, great at 200 feet, competes for pucks, plays hard, works to get it back and shoots the puck really well.”
Cozens has proved himself on special teams with two goals and two assists to his credit on the power play. One of those power play goals was the game winner in a crucial March 10 contest with the Detroit Red Wings, then battling Ottawa for an Eastern Conference wild card playoff spot. Cozens is second only to Giroux in faceoff percentage wins. To complete the package, he brings a physical edge to his game racking up a whopping 55 hits over his 18 games with Ottawa.
The Senators’ forward lines are more balanced with Cozens. This takes the pressure off Tkachuk, Stutzle and Giroux. Not only that, but there is also much more certainty that Cozens will be in the lineup on any given night. Josh Norris’ recurring shoulder injury sidelined him for long periods forcing the Senators to adjust constantly.
The Senators are hoping they can count on Cozens to deliver the point production fans saw in his 2022-23 breakout season with the Buffalo Sabres when he notched 31 goals and 37 assists for 68 points. While this season he will fall well short of that standard, it’s important to keep in mind that over the 61 games he played with Buffalo, he moved up and down the lineup, fell into a scoring slump and was missing his injured linemate, Jack Quinn. Playing consistently on the same line in the top-six and supported by a better team in Ottawa, Cozens may burst back into form during the playoffs.
There’s no question that Staios got the better of the deal in the trade for Cozens – despite giving up Norris and Jacob-Bernard Docker to get him. The statistics say it all with Norris injured again and listed day-to-day having managed to play in just three games since arriving in Buffalo in early March. As for Bernard-Docker, he’s finally back in the lineup and skating in the Sabres’ top-four on the blue line. Still, he has managed just one goal and two assists over 11 games.
Swedish Strongman Fabian Zetterlund Adds Punch to Senators Roster
Zetterlund is playing in his fourth NHL season, the best of which was 2023-24 when he scored 24 goals and 44 points. In the 64 games he played this season with the San Jose Sharks before being traded to the Senators, he was on track to repeat that level of point production.
All of this is to say that Zetterlund is better than what his stats say he is over his 17 games with the Senators. Still, with just one goal and two assists so far, many Senators fans are grumbling about his performance and wondering why Staios went to the bother of engineering a trade for him.
Related: Fabian Zetterlund Brings Offense and Grit to Senators’ Roster
Yet Senators’ head coach Travis Green seems to be a Zetterlund believer saying, “He goes hard to the net. He likes to shoot the puck. He’s got a good shot. He’s got a nose for the net.” This will be important to the Senators with the difficulties they’ve had this season scoring goals. While their goal scoring has improved lately, they are still only ranked 22nd in the league on total goals scored.
Zetterlund also brings a physical dimension to the Senators’ forward lines. Packing as he does, 220 pounds onto a 5-foot-11 frame, he’s probably one of the strongest players in the league. He proved it in an Instagram video deadlifting 600 pounds!
Zetterlund uses that strength on the ice registering 120 hits last season with the Sharks. Despite averaging barely more than 13:50 per game with Ottawa he’s notched 33 hits in 17 games putting him second to Tkachuk as measured by hits-per-game. That will prove valuable to the Senators in the playoffs.
While he’s young and has no NHL playoff experience, Zetterlund has shown glimpses of leadership and an ability to play under pressure based on his international experience. He has represented his native Sweden in seven high-level international tournaments. He skated as an alternate captain for Sweden in the 2019 World Junior Championship and played for Team Sweden in the World Championship last year. Some say he’ll play for Sweden at the 2026 Olympics.
For some, it’s just a question of time before Zetterlund shows his true potential. Senators fans frustrated with his point production so far need to remember that he had a slow start with the Sharks after being traded to them by the New Jersey Devils at the 2023 Trade Deadline. He recorded just three assists in the 22 games he played with the Sharks in the remainder of that season. Yet in the following season, he became the Sharks’ leading goal scorer.
As to whether Staios got the best of Sharks’ GM Mike Grier in the trade, the numbers speak for themselves. Neither Noah Gregor nor Zack Ostapchuck, who went back the other way in the deal for Zetterlund, have registered a single point for the Sharks.
Cozens and Zetterlund Could Be Senators X-Factors
Every playoff team needs an X-factor or two to step up in the playoffs and be a difference maker. Senators fans have every reason to believe that Cozens and Zetterlund could be those players.
