Drake Batherson, Senators Remain Distant On Next Contract

The 28-year-old right-winger is in the final year of a six-year, $29.85MM ($4.975MM AAV) contract that expires next season, when Batherson will be an unrestricted free agent. A deal that the Senators have enjoyed severely in the point production department. Last year, he posted a career-best 33 goals for 71 points; he was second on the Senators in scoring, behind Tim Stutzle‘s 83 points and fourth on the team in cost-per-point, a mere $70K in 2025-26.

“There’s no secret that we want to get Drake Batherson signed,” Senators GM Steve Staios said via the Ottawa Citizen. “That conversation is ongoing with Drake, and it takes two sides to come to a deal. But there’s been good dialogue as we move forward. He’s a homegrown talent. It’s a great story. He continues to get better and we feel like we have a very great, strong, contending team with a chance to win. We want him to be a part of it.”

His production, even before this year, has been extremely cost-effective for the Sens. Batherson has produced three 60+ point campaigns dating back to 2022-23. Before that, in the early years of his current contract, he was still providing 30-40 points. This kind of progression is admirable for a former fourth-round pick, where Ottawa selected him at 121st overall in the 2017 NHL Draft, a class where his 364 career points reside comfortably in the top-10 among his colleagues taken that year.

Batherson is believed to be looking for that eight-year deal; the money is what is up for debate. League sources, in speaking with Garrioch, believe Batherson could command a comparable contract to that of Alex Tuch or Adrian Kempe. This means that on the open market, he could get $10-$11MM annually. That AAV would make him the Senators highest paid player, ahead of Jake Sanderson‘s $8.05MM, Linus Ullmark‘s $8.25MM, and Stutzle’s $8.35MM.

Does Ottawa want to give Batherson that kind of deal? To compare, Tuch and Kempe both have played a much larger number of NHL games; Batherson’s 470 NHL games are 241 away from Kempe’s 711. However, within that shorter frame of professional time, Batherson has racked up 51 fewer goals (149) than Tuch’s 200, and overall is around 100 points off from Tuch (448) and Kempe’s (474) total career points. Both are top-line players who’re earning within the top-10 of their position, Tuch listed as a right-wing and Kempe as a center, respectively.

According to AFPAnalytics, Batherson’s projected next contract would be a six-year contract that would pay him nearly $60MM at a $9.8MM AAV. That would take him through his age-35 season. The Senators have to consider whether Drake can keep this kind of production up at a much higher pay grade into those late-30’s years. Based on what he wants, they’d be giving him more money and banking on him staying consistent with what he’s shown over the past four seasons into his age-37 season. In that gamble, hope should play in the Sens’ favor that the cap continuously rises.

Ottawa will have $40MM in cap space in 2027-28.

Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images