Arizona Coyotes acquire Philadelphia forward Nick Cousins

The Arizona Coyotes made a trade Friday, acquiring forward Nick Cousins from the Philadelphia Flyers. The deal was reported by Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan before being announced by the team.

The team gave up forward Brendan Warren and a fifth-round draft pick in 2018 in exchange for Cousins and goaltender Merrick Madsen.

“We are very pleased to acquire Nick,” said Coyotes general manager John Chayka in a press release. “He is a tenacious, versatile, two-way center who will add grit and energy to our lineup. We’re excited to have him join the Coyotes.”

The 23-year-old Cousins was the Flyers’ third round pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. In three NHL seasons, Cousins has played in a total of 107 games and has 12 goals and 15 assists for a total of 27 points.

Madsen was 28-8-2 for Harvard this season with a 2.11 goals against average.

“Merrick is a big, skilled, athletic goaltender,” said Chayka.

Warren was drafted in the third round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Coyotes. In his sophomore season at Michigan this year, Warren had 10 points.

It’s possible that the Coyotes made the move for Cousins so they could add him to their list of exposed players in the upcoming Expansion Draft, which is on Wednesday. According to the NHL’s Expansion Draft rules, every team must “expose” a certain number of players that meet certain criteria so that the expansion team (in this case, the Las Vegas Golden Knights) can draft current NHL players away from other teams.

According to a report from Morgan, however, that’s not the case.

Coyotes plan to protect Cousins.

— Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) June 17, 2017

Follow @AZSports