After briefly considering the open market next summer, Drake Batherson kept returning to the same thought: Ottawa feels like home.
Drake Batherson learned he'd become the highest-paid player in Ottawa hockey history during a pretty average Monday night.
“I was just barbecuing, and my agent called me to let me know it was done,” Batherson told reporters on Tuesday morning. “Then Steve called me shortly after, so I had to keep it pretty quiet. I called my family a bit, but other than that, I just kept barbecuing and went to bed.”
The Senators announced Tuesday that Batherson had signed an eight-year contract extension carrying an average annual value of $10.75 million. The deal begins in 2027-28 and will keep him under contract for nine more years.
The 28-year-old admitted he had considered the possibility of testing unrestricted free agency next summer, but each time he thought about that option, he arrived at the same answer.
“Going into last year, you think about, ‘Do I want to test the market, or do I want to stay here?’” Batherson said. “My mind just kept coming back to, ‘I want to get a deal done in Ottawa and play here for as long as I can.’”
Batherson was passed over in his first year of NHL draft eligibility in 2016. The following year, after his growth spurt had finally begun, he waited for a good long while again before the Sens took a chance on him in the fourth round of the 2017 Draft.
Nearly a decade later, the team and the city feel like home.
“Ever since 2017, when I walked into development camp, it’s all the same medical guys, equipment guys, still here today, and it’s really felt like a family,” he said.
“Whether it’s coming in and saying hi to the security guys, or the guys that are cleaning the dressing rooms, everyone in the city outside of hockey, people I’ve met playing golf with, it’s just felt like home.”
That carried more weight than the opportunity to explore what other teams might have offered next summer.
“These are a group of guys that I love, and I didn’t want to be anywhere else,” Batherson said.
Those words carried some extra impact following an off-season in which Brady Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers. While Tkachuk wanted out, Batherson preferred to remain part of what the Sens have been building.
“I think what we’ve built here over the last couple of years, all of us are just going to increasingly get better,” Batherson said. “We’ve added a few guys to help that out as well.”
Batherson just had the best season of his NHL career, which he's literally done every year. He put up 33 goals and 71 points and led the Sens with three goals and four points during their first-round playoff loss to Carolina. Getting four points in a series where your team only scored five goals isn't easy.
His production and the wild NHL salary cap spikes helped push the final value of the contract beyond what he initially expected.
“Going into the summer, I didn’t think I’d land on this number personally,” Batherson said. “Then, obviously, once Kaprizov and Carlsson and these guys started getting paid, it just kind of gradually rose for me, I guess.”
In truth, there's been nothing gradual about any of this. In Cale Makar, for example, we now have a player who's cracked the $20 million-a-year mark. So, by comparison, Batherson's $10.75 million doesn't seem remotely out of line.
“I don’t think I ever thought I’d make this kind of money,” he said. “But obviously, just knowing where the league’s going and how high the salary cap’s going, I think it’s going to keep growing, and I think that’s awesome for all the players.”
Negotiations continued until the final hours before the new CBA kicks in tomorrow. It will reduce the maximum term on extensions from eight years to seven. Despite taking it down to the wire, Batherson stayed confident.
The call finally came while he was over at Jake Sanderson's house on Monday night, where he's staying until his new house construction is finished. Grilling steaks with Sanderson and Stephen Halliday, Batherson joked that the steaks were definitely on him.
“All along, I had faith that it was going to get done,” he said. “I never questioned it for one minute. Once I got that call that it was officially signed, I was pretty fired up.”
The extension removes what could have been a season-long distraction. He says he wanted to get it done before camp, whatever the number was, so he could just be with the guys and focus on hockey.
Batherson has already played 470 regular-season games with Ottawa and sits 10th in all-time franchise scoring with 364 points. Thanks to the new deal, he now has plenty of time to try to reel in some of the guys ahead of him.
It will also extend a relationship with a happy fan base that he's come to appreciate over his first eight years here.
“Whether it’s running into someone at the grocery store or running into kids, it’s an amazing fan base,” Batherson said. “I’ve seen that for eight years now, especially in the playoffs. It’s electric.
“I’m definitely excited to be around them for a lot longer.”
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
