Senators Finalizing Biggest Contract In Franchise History With Drake Batherson
Deal Flips From Wide Gap To Closing In
Pierre LeBrun reported Monday morning that the Senators and Drake Batherson remained far apart, and that Batherson would likely settle for six or seven years if the money was right rather than pushing for the full eight.
Hours later, Elliotte Friedman reported on his 32 Thoughts Podcast that Ottawa is now closing in on an eight-year extension, with the average annual value believed to land between $10.5 million and $11 million.
Under the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement, teams lose the ability to sign their own pending free agents to eight-year extensions once the clock strikes midnight on September 16, dropping the max term to seven years for in-house deals and six for anyone signing elsewhere.
For Ottawa, that eighth year is the difference between an $84 million total commitment at $10.5 million annually and a $12 million cap hit if the term gets squeezed into seven years instead.
For Batherson, it's simply more guaranteed money over a longer runway.
BREAKING: The Ottawa Senators are closing in on an eight-year deal worth $10.5M-$11M AAV with Drake Batherson, per @FriedgeHNIC.
— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) September 15, 2026
Would be the largest contract in franchise history. pic.twitter.com/YP7L8rbTw4
Batherson, 28, is coming off the best season of his career, a 33-goal, 71-point campaign in 79 games that made him Ottawa's second-leading scorer behind Tim Stutzle.
He's set to make just $4.975 million in the final year of his current deal, a number that already looked like a bargain before this year's breakout.
Per @FriedgeHNIC, the Sens are closing in on an 8 year extension at 10.5-11M with Drake Batherson 👀💸
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) September 15, 2026
He had 71P in 79GP last season pic.twitter.com/alQCddbxea
The Senators also just lost captain Brady Tkachuk to Florida this offseason after honoring his trade request, which raised the stakes on retaining their next-most important forward rather than risking a second major departure in the same summer.
Franchise-Record Money, Tax-Smart Structure
Either number in that range, $10.5 million or $11 million, would clear anything Ottawa has ever paid a player, putting Batherson well ahead of Stutzle's $8.35 million as the highest-paid Senator by a wide margin.
League sources have pointed to Alex Tuch's eight-year, $10.5 million deal in Washington and Adrian Kempe's eight-year, $10.625 million contract in Los Angeles as the natural comparables teams have been using to frame Batherson's number all summer.
Reporting indicates Batherson's camp pushed for a front-loaded deal with heavy signing bonus money, similar to how Tuch's contract was built, largely for tax reasons.
Regular salary in Ontario can get taxed at close to 50 percent, while bonus money comes in closer to 15 percent, a gap significant enough to shape how a $84 million or $88 million contract actually gets paid out year to year.
The new CBA does put limits on how far that can go, capping bonus money at 60 percent of a deal's total value and narrowing the gap between a contract's first and final year payments to 20 percent, well below the roughly 40 percent swing built into Tuch's contract.
Nothing is signed yet, but with the deadline arriving within hours and both insiders now describing the sides as closing in rather than far apart, Ottawa looks set to make Drake Batherson the highest-paid player in franchise history before Wednesday.
