Update On Senators and Drake Batherson’s Next Contract

Tomorrow could provide more clarity on Drake Batherson’s next contract.

Why? Well, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, both Batherson and Senators GM Steve Staios will be in attendance for the team’s annual Foundation charity tournament, which will take place at the Rideau View Golf Club in Manotick. If there’s any way we could see an update regarding this, it’d be relatively soon.

The discussion has only intensified with the looming Sept. 15 deadline of the NHL’s new CBA, which would ultimately lose both sides’ ability to ink an eight-year contract. This new agreement dictates that the maximum length of years a player can sign to stay with their current club on their next contract is seven, contrary to eight before.

As Garrioch reports, Batherson spent his summer in Halifax and has returned to Ottawa recently. Ideally, he’d prefer to remain a Senator, having settled down in the area where he’s been with the team since 2018. 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. If he reaches that point, he can command more money on the open market; however, his maximum term, per the new CBA, would be a six-year contract if he were to sign elsewhere.

The Senators have enjoyed Batherson’s point production severely in his current contract. 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.

Even before this year, Batherson has been extremely cost-effective for the Sens. He’s boasted 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.

According to AFPAnalytics, Batherson’s next contract would be a six-year contract that would pay him around $60MM total at a $9.8MM AAV. That would carry him through his age-35 year. 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.

Batherson is said to be looking for that eight-year deal with Ottawa; 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 will make him the Senators highest paid player, ahead of Jake Sanderson‘s $8.05MM, Linus Ullmark‘s $8.25MM, and Stutzle’s $8.35MM.

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.

All in all, a league source told the Ottawa Citizen that it’s a complicated negotiation between both parties. Ottawa will have $40MM in cap space in 2027-28.