- Sept. 15 is the last day Drake Batherson can sign an eight-year deal in Ottawa
- Bruce Garrioch reports a gap still exists between the winger and the Senators
- Read below for the comparables driving the price and what happens if Oct. 3 arrives with nothing signed
The Ottawa Senators have eight days to give Drake Batherson the contract he actually wants.
Sept. 15 is the final day any player in the league can sign an eight-year deal. Once the NHL’s new CBA takes hold on Sept. 16, the ceiling on a re-signing drops to seven years, and a player who reaches unrestricted free agency can only get six from a new club.
Ottawa is the only team on earth that can hand Batherson eight years. That leverage expires next Tuesday.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen reported Monday that a gap remains between the two sides on a new deal, and that a league insider called it a complicated negotiation:
Neither side has to go looking for the other. Steve Staios and Batherson will both be at the Senators Foundation charity tournament Tuesday at Rideau View Golf Club in Manotick.
Batherson flew back to Ottawa over the weekend after spending his summer near Halifax. He has roots in the city and would rather stay.
The money is the argument. Batherson is finishing a six-year contract that pays him just under $5 million a season, a Pierre Dorion special that turned into one of the best value deals in the league.
Alex Tuch and Adrian Kempe are the comparables the Citizen floated in that same report. Tuch got eight years and $84 million from Washington. Kempe signed for eight years and $85 million in Los Angeles at $10.625 million per season.
Reach free agency with a rising cap and Batherson could clear $11 million a year.
He put up 33 goals and 71 points last season, both career highs, and finished second on the team behind Tim Stutzle’s 83 points. Not bad for a fourth-round pick who went 121st overall in 2017. Watch all 33 of those goals:
Losing him would sting more than usual. Staios already moved captain Brady Tkachuk to Florida in June after Tkachuk asked out, and this roster cannot absorb a second top-six exit.
The Senators picked “The Hill We Choose” as their slogan for 2026-27. Garrioch’s read is that if nothing is signed by the Oct. 3 opener against Toronto, Batherson is walking to free agency next summer.
