In 1905, the Dawson City Nuggets challenged the Ottawa Hockey Club for the Stanley Cup. They made the 6,400 kilometre journey from the Yukon over several weeks, travelling by foot, dog sled, bicycle, train and ship.
120 years later, Whitehorse’s Dylan Cozens will only need a single airport connection to get home from Ottawa, all in a day’s journey. Still, unlike that poor Nuggets team, which was sent packing after being outscored 32-4 over two games, Cozens might not be coming home early this year.
That’s because since being dealt by the Buffalo Sabres to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Josh Norris and defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker, Cozens and his new team are surging towards the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It would be Cozens’ first taste of playoff hockey after five losing seasons in Buffalo, and the Senators’ first trip back since 2017.
“It was tough playing those games at the end for Buffalo there when you're kind of out of the playoffs,” Cozens told the News. “So to come into this, it's exciting to play in these big meaningful games, and I'll have a legit shot at the playoffs.”
Cozens, a towering 6-foot-3 centre, was having a down year with the Sabres — just 31 points through 61 games, a far cry from his career-best 68 points in the 2022-23 season. Still, just two seasons into the seven-year, $49.7 million pact he signed in 2023, Cozens said he was “pretty shocked” to find out he was being traded.
Particularly difficult was parting ways with Sabres teammate Bowen Byram, another Western Canadian who was selected just three picks ahead of Cozens in the 2019 NHL Draft. The duo played together as far back as midget, going on to play together for Canada at the under-17s and under-18s and two World Junior Championships.
“It was tough saying goodbye to a lot of my good friends there,” Cozens said. “I never thought that I'd get to play with [Byram] that early in my career and then I never thought I'd be gone right away after.”
While he didn’t expect a trade out of Buffalo with five more seasons on his deal, Cozens is excited for “a chance to build something” in Ottawa. While moving to Canada’s capital doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to return home to Whitehorse in the summer, he’s excited to be in the same country.
“Playing in a Canadian market is something that I always wanted to do at some point in my career, so to be here now, it's very exciting for me and my family.”
Cozens said his mother, Sue Bogie, had already booked a trip to Buffalo prior to the NHL’s trade deadline to watch him play. So when news of the trade circulated, she rerouted the flights to Ottawa to catch his first two games in a Senators sweater, including his first goal with the club, the game-winner, against the Detroit Red Wings on March 10.
“They sacrificed so much for me to make it here,” Cozens said, whose road to the NHL is quintessential Canadian hockey lore.
Cozens’ father, Mike Cozens, built a backyard rink at their Whitehorse home every winter for his son, starting when he was just a toddler. Cozens progressed quickly, playing several brackets above his age in a sparse hockey environment.
“There obviously wasn't much competition up there, I never really played any legit games against other teams at kids your age, you were always playing up … it was tough.”
When Cozens outgrew the territory’s limited hockey competition as a 14-year-old, his parents allowed him to stay with a billet family in British Columbia to pursue his hockey dreams.
“It couldn't have been easy on them, but they knew that's what was best for me to have a chance at making it, so I owe them everything.”
And pretty soon, there might be an emerging crop of players who are indebted to Cozens — fellow Whitehorse local and projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft Gavin McKenna has grown up under Cozens’ trailblazing shadow. The young phenom is good friends with Cozens’ younger brother Luke Cozens, a forward for the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.
“I just kind of wanted to show that it's possible to make it even from a place like [Whitehorse] and trying to inspire kids from the Yukon,” Cozens said. “[McKenna has] been doing unbelievable, so I'm sure he's gonna get drafted ahead of where I was and set some new records.”
For his part, Cozens has been no slouch. Since the trade he has three goals and five assists in nine games with the Senators playing on a line with wingers David Perron and Drake Batherson, the former being Cozens’ temporary host in Ottawa.
“He's super easy. We both have the same interests, so we kind of just make dinner, watch hockey and go to bed,” Batherson said, chuckling. “It's kind of the same situation every night.”
Away from the rink, Batherson said Cozens has taken a liking to JOEY, a Vancouver-based restaurant chain with two Ottawa locations. “He loves the food there, I took him there the first night and he’s ordered it a couple times, so he's always wanting to go there.”
Aside from a visit to the popular Nordik Spa in Chelsea, Que. with teammate Tim Stützle, Batherson admitted there hasn’t been ample time to take Cozens on excursions during a jam-packed sprint to the regular season’s end.
In the meantime, a playoff berth is all that matters, and Batherson credited Cozens for the leading role he’s playing in bringing Ottawa to the promised land of the postseason.
“He's super fun to play with, super dynamic and I think he's only gonna get better.”
Janson Duench is completing his bachelor's of journalism and humanities at Carleton University. He is the copy editor of the Charlatan, Carleton’s student-run newspaper.
