Mae Day: The Bathersons Welcome Another Pro Hockey Player Into the Family

Mae Batherson, who played defence at St. Lawrence and Syracuse, was chosen in the sixth round of the PWHL Draft on Monday.

Very few Ottawa Senators in history have stronger family roots in the club than Drake Batherson. Batherson has already climbed to the top Senators' branch on his family tree. The 26-year-old had a career-high 66 points this season.

Long before Drake came along, his father, Norm Batherson, was a farm hand for one season in the Senators’ organization, playing primarily for their American Hockey League affiliate in Prince Edward Island. Then you have Batherson‘s uncle, Dennis Vial, a Senators’ enforcer for several years until 1998 – the year Drake was born. 

The family hockey tree also includes Drake’s sister, Mae Batherson, who's been on the PWHL Draft radar for some time. A lot of local fans were hoping she'd be the latest Batherson to join the Ottawa pro hockey fray, but on Monday at the draft, it wasn't meant to be,

PWHL Ottawa stuck with their draft plan and wasn't swayed by the Batherson bloodlines or potential for storylines. They had six chances to select Batherson, ranked by The Hockey News' Women's Hockey Site at 22nd overall. She was chosen by Minnesota at 33.

The 5-foot-8 blueliner scored 37 points in 39 games at St. Lawrence in her final season of NCAA hockey. She also had a fine career at Syracuse, finishing as the school's fifth highest scoring defenceman of all time.

“My sister’s probably the best athlete in the family, honestly,” Drake told me on the Sens Nation Podcast a couple of years ago. ”She plays soccer. She shoots 80 in golf and plays D1 hockey. So, she’s got that title for sure.”

Drake was there at the PWHL draft for Mae's big day, just as Mae was on hand when Drake got picked by the Senators at the 2017 NHL Draft in Chicago. Drake had to wait much longer that day, going 121st overall.

TSN asked Mae about how she and Drake pushed each other in hockey when they were kids.

“I just wanted to be him since the day I was born. I saw him play hockey and that’s what I wanted to do," Mae said.