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Senators acquire Dylan Cozens from Sabres for Josh Norris, Bernard-Docker
The Ottawa Senators are making a huge addition in an attempt to end their playoff drought.
The Ottawa Senators have made a significant addition as they look to hold onto their wild-card spot and end their seven-season playoff drought.
The Senators acquired centreman Dylan Cozens from the Buffalo Sabres ahead of the trade deadline Friday, sending out centre Josh Norris and defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker in return.
Ottawa also received blue-liner Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round pick as part of the deal.
The Senators haven’t made the playoffs since 2017, when they came one win away from a spot in the Stanley Cup Final. But the club currently sits tied with the New York Rangers for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The 24-year-old Cozens was a highly coveted trade piece leading up to Friday’s deadline. Though the Whitehorse product has endured something of a down year in 2024-25 — he’s posted 11 goals and 27 points through 54 games so far — he’s shown glimpses of elite potential in the past.
The 2019 seventh-overall pick’s best campaign game in 2022-23, when he amassed 31 goals and 68 points for the Sabres.
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“The workhorse from Whitehorse — obviously I got to know him during my time in Buffalo,” Senators netminder Linus Ullmark said of Cozens, speaking with media in Ottawa following the trade. “He’s a great kid, a young centreman that hasn’t really been getting everything out of (himself), I would say. He has a lot of potential. I think he’s a very good two-way player.
“I’m hoping that we can help him thrive in this environment.”
Cozens is playing out the second season of a seven-year deal worth $7.1 million annually.
Going the other way is Norris, who was tied for second in goals on the Senators roster, with 20 on the season, and 33 points overall.
With Norris playing out the third year of an eight-year, $63.6-million pact, Friday’s deal marks the first time two players with cap hits north of $7 million were traded for each other on deadline day.
Also headed to Buffalo is Bernard-Docker, a first-round pick from 2018, who’s been in and out of the Senators’ lineup throughout his tenure in Ottawa. The 24-year-old rearguard averaged just over 13 minutes of ice for the Sens this season, putting up four points in 25 games.
Gilbert was averaging just north of 10 minutes for Buffalo this season, and has five points through 25 games.
While the move seems a positive step forward for the Senators, who’ve brought in promising young talent to bolster their depth down the middle, the departure of Norris will surely be felt in the club’s locker room.
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“It’s pretty tough. It sucks losing a guy like that,” a visibly emotional Brady Tkachuk said of Norris after the trade was announced. “Obviously everyone knows how much he means to me. … I just spent the last little bit with him. Got to take advantage of every minute throughout the rest of the day.
“It’s the unfortunate reality of it being a business. We’re getting back important pieces that are really going to help us. I mean, it sucks. It’s part of it. But we’re going to welcome (Cozens and Gilbert) with open arms.”
Added Ullmark, who himself was traded to Ottawa this past off-season after a sterling run in Boston:
“It can be both exciting and it can be devastating. There’s a lot of personal relationships in this team, and whenever there’s a player that’s getting dealt, it really really sucks for the people that are the closest to him,” the netminder said. “That’s the business that we’re dealing with, and the cards that we’ve been dealt. It never gets easier, but at the end of the day, it’s a business decision — you’ve got to look past those sorts of things and focus on the task at hand.”
Leading up to deadline day, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos previously reported that “at least half a dozen teams” were interested in Cozens, who was once considered a core piece for the Sabres.
With Buffalo sitting just a few spots removed from last place in the league heading into the home stretch of the season, it seems the Sabres have elected to shake up their core once again, looking to find a solution for what’s become a lengthy playoff drought of their own. The Senators, meanwhile, seem poised for a step forward.
