A record deal, signed with hours to spare
Eighty-six million dollars over eight years. Ottawa has never paid anyone that kind of money.
The Senators announced Drake Batherson’s extension on Tuesday, tying the forward to the club through the 2034-35 season. The average annual value lands at $10.75 million, which pushes past the previous franchise record, the eight-year, $66.8 million deal Tim Stutzle signed in September 2022.
The date matters as much as the number. September 15 was the last day a club could hand one of its own players an eight-year contract. From Wednesday, the new collective bargaining agreement caps re-signings at seven years. Washington got Ryan Leonard done the same way, $84 million across eight seasons, hours before the same cutoff. Ottawa was not going to be left out.
Try it for $0.99.
Seven seasons, seven jumps
Batherson is 28 and still climbing. He is only the second player in league history to raise his point total in seven consecutive seasons. The other is Vic Stasiuk, who did it with Detroit between 1953-54 and 1959-60. That is not the sort of company that usually turns up in a contract announcement.
Last season brought 33 goals and 38 assists in 79 games. In the playoffs he led the Senators with four points in four games, which says plenty about a roster that has spent most of the past decade rebuilding rather than contending.
“Drake exemplifies what it is to be an Ottawa Senator,” general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios said. “He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term. We view him as a key part of our core group.”
What Ottawa is buying
Drafted and developed in house, Batherson now becomes the reference point for every contract the Senators negotiate next. Ottawa has committed to him through his age-36 season, at a number that will look heavy if the production flattens out and cheap if the salary cap keeps rising the way the league expects.
Training camps open across the NHL this week. The Senators walk into theirs with their leading scorer settled and their books tied up for the better part of a decade.
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