- Bruce Garrioch reports a second deadline, with Ottawa’s Oct. 3 opener the real point of no return
- League executives peg Drake Batherson between $10 million and $11 million a year on the open market
- Read below for what the Sept. 15 CBA cutoff still costs both sides
Ottawa’s window to sign Drake Batherson now has a second date stamped on it.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen wrote Sunday that the Senators and their pending unrestricted free agent both want an extension, and that the money is still a gap. He added that if nothing is done by the time Ottawa opens the season on Oct. 3, the expectation is Batherson plays the year out and goes to market next summer.
Sept. 15 has been the date everyone circled. It is the last day an eight-year contract can be signed before the new CBA cuts the ceiling to seven years for a player re-signing with his own club. Garrioch’s point is that blowing past it does not end the talks. Opening night does.
Money is the reason nothing has moved since July. League executives told Garrioch that Batherson could pull between $10 million and $11 million a year if he gets to July 1. He turned 28 in April.
The production is there. Batherson put up a career-best 33 goals and 71 points in 79 games last season, and Ottawa leaned on him with the man advantage, where he scored 13 times and picked up 30 points.
Catch him picking a corner in the middle of a five-game goal streak last December:
He is playing out the final season of the six-year deal he signed in September 2021 at a $4.975 million cap hit. Doubling that number would make him the highest-paid player on the roster by a wide margin, past Tim Stutzle and his $8.35 million.
The Senators start the year in Toronto, where Batherson had a two-goal night in a 5-2 win last March. Here is that one:
Sixteen days until the eight-year option disappears, and 18 more after that before Batherson starts a contract year in Toronto.
