Drake Batherson and Ryan Leonard signed eight-year contracts on Tuesday, becoming the last two players in the National Hockey League who will be able to do so.
Batherson’s extension with the Ottawa Senators is worth $86 million, an average annual value of $10.75 million, and Leonard’s with the Washington Capitals is worth $84 million, an average annual value of $10.5 million, according to NHL.com. Both begin next season.
The timing was not incidental. A change in the collective bargaining agreement took effect Wednesday that drops the maximum term on a contract from eight years to seven for a player re-signing with his own club, and to six for a player signing with a new one. TSN reported the change earlier this month, and this newspaper reported on Sept. 14 that nine players had signed eight-year deals over the summer, with a handful of restricted free agents still unsigned as camps opened around the league.
Two of the names on that list of outstanding business closed on the final day.
Batherson, whose talks with Ottawa were characterized by TSN as not close as recently as Monday of last week, said the deal came together over the course of the off-season.
“Obviously they’ve been working at it pretty much all summer and excited it got done before training camp and now I can just relax and play some hockey,” the 28-year-old forward told NHL.com. “Going into last year, you think about, ‘Do I want to test the market or do I want to stay here?’ and my mind just kept coming back to, I wanted to get a deal done in Ottawa and play here for as long as I can.”
Batherson set career highs last season with 33 goals and 71 points in 79 games, and had four points in four playoff games. He was entering the final year of a six-year, $29.85-million contract signed in September 2021. A fourth-round pick, 121st overall, in 2017, he has 364 points in 470 regular-season games.
“Drake exemplifies what it is to be an Ottawa Senator,” general manager Steve Staios said in a statement. “He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term.”
Leonard, 21, had 45 points in 75 games in his first full NHL season and was entering the last year of his entry-level contract. The eighth overall pick in 2023, he ranked third among league rookies in power-play points. Washington general manager Chris Patrick said the club believes Leonard is “still years away from entering his prime.”
The most instructive deal of the day may be the one that did not run eight years. Cutter Gauthier, the restricted free agent who led the Anaheim Ducks with 41 goals and 69 points last season, signed for six years on Tuesday, with financial terms undisclosed. By the terms of the expiring agreement, he was eligible for the full eight and did not take it.
“We are pleased to get Cutter signed to a long-term deal and have him in camp on time,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said.
Carolina captain Jordan Staal, 38, also signed on Tuesday, taking a one-year contract for 2027-28 worth up to $10 million. The structure is unusual: a base salary of $900,000, a $4-million signing bonus and up to $5.1 million in performance bonuses. Staal won the Conn Smythe Trophy last spring after captaining the Hurricanes to the second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Elsewhere, the Detroit Red Wings named Shawn Horcoff their interim general manager on Tuesday, replacing Steve Yzerman, who was removed as executive president and general manager on July 15 and has moved to a senior adviser role. Horcoff, an Edmonton Oilers fourth-round pick in 1998 who played the bulk of his 1,008 NHL games in Edmonton, joined Detroit in 2016 and has been an assistant general manager since 2022. Governor and chief executive Chris Ilitch said Horcoff remains a candidate for the permanent job.
The Chicago Blackhawks named Connor Bedard captain on Tuesday, making the 21-year-old the second-youngest in franchise history behind Jonathan Toews. Bedard is expected to be out until November following shoulder surgery.
The Oilers, who had no contracts left to settle before the deadline, opened their main camp Wednesday under new head coach Mike Babcock. Edmonton plays its first pre-season game Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets and opens the regular season Sept. 29 at Rogers Place against the Vancouver Canucks.
Photo: Drake Batherson at the 2019 AHL All-Star Classic, by TheAHL, licensed CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The image is not from the events described above.
