Drake Batherson has signed an eight-year contract extension with the Ottawa Senators worth $86 million, the largest commitment in the franchise’s history and the culmination of a climb that began with four goals in a season of Maritime Junior A hockey.
The Senators announced the deal on Sept. 15, with general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios confirming a $10.75-million average annual value running through the 2034-35 season. “Drake exemplifies what it is to be an Ottawa Senator,” Staios said in the team’s statement. “He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term. We view him as a key part of our core group.”
Batherson, 28, told reporters the same afternoon that the decision was never really in doubt. “My mind just kept coming back,” he said, in comments published by the club. “I want[ed] to get a deal done in Ottawa and play here for as long as I can. We took it right down to the wire, but all along I had faith that it was going to get done, and I never questioned it for one minute.”
What pulled him back, by his own account, had as much to do with life away from the rink as with the standings. He pointed to the medical, equipment, security and janitorial staff, to fans who stop him in the grocery store, and to a golf network assembled almost entirely by accident. “When my dad comes to town, I’ve got 10 guys I can go play golf with, just from people I’ve met, restaurants or whatever, it just feels like home, and it’s only a two-hour flight from Halifax, so it’s a great spot for me,” he said.
The Halifax reference matters. Batherson spends his offseasons in Nova Scotia, where he trains with a group that includes Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, and where his professional path nearly stalled before it started. He was passed over in his first year of QMJHL draft eligibility in 2014, taken in the sixth round a year later, and spent the 2015-16 season with the Valley Wildcats of the Maritime Junior Hockey League, finishing with four goals and 19 points in 28 games. He was passed over again in his first year of NHL draft eligibility in 2016 before Ottawa took him in the fourth round in 2017.
“I had four goals at 17 in Jr. A. I’ve come a long way since then,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s just a sport that I love and always had passion for, and I was going to play for as long as I could, no matter where that took me.”
The production has climbed every year since. Batherson posted 33 goals and 38 assists for 71 points in 79 games in 2025-26, career highs across the board and his first 30-goal, 70-point season, and in doing so became only the second player in NHL history to increase his individual point total in seven consecutive years, according to the team. He then led Ottawa in playoff scoring with three goals and an assist in four games.
He is now the second-longest tenured Senator behind Thomas Chabot. He sits 10th on the franchise points list with 364 and enters the season tied with Tim Stutzle for ninth in goals with 149. Over eight years the leaderboard math gets interesting: 36 points this season would move him into seventh all time in Ottawa, and 128 more would push him past Alexei Yashin into fourth.
The timing was not incidental. Per TSN, the two sides had until Tuesday night to complete an eight-year extension before a change under the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement capped extensions with a player’s current team at seven years, which explains the down-to-the-wire framing Batherson used.
“I especially want to thank Michael Andlauer, the ownership, Steve Staios, for having the trust in me and giving me this contract,” Batherson said. “I obviously wanted to stay around, but it was ultimately their decision. I’m glad they have faith in me and I’ll do my best out there to help this team win a championship.”
