Drake Batherson scored 33 goals and 71 points last season. He makes $4.975 million doing it. And thanks to a contract standoff nobody in Ottawa planned for, he might actually be available.
Blueshirt Banter broke down the situation this week. Batherson wants an eight-year extension. The Senators aren’t offering that term. The CBA’s September 15 deadline is bearing down on both sides — after that date, the max contract term drops to seven years if he stays in Ottawa, six if he lands somewhere new.
That’s not a wait-and-see situation. That’s a countdown clock.
Ottawa just watched Brady Tkachuk walk out the door this summer, and the Rangers were reportedly circling that situation too, before getting left off his no-trade list entirely. Losing Tkachuk and Batherson in the same calendar year would gut a Senators locker room that’s already uneasy.
So go get him. Now.
Not in March, when every desperate team in the league is bidding against you for the same 30-goal winger and the leverage is gone.
The trade buzz is already spreading on X, courtesy of the NHL Trade Rumors account:
Drake Batherson just scored 33 goals and 71 points.
He makes only $4.975M this season.
He wants 8 years.
Ottawa has until Sept. 15 before the contract rules change.
And now the Rangers are being floated as a team that should be watching 👇https://t.co/4kAr2L6NEa
— NHL Trade Rumors (@nhltraderumours) August 22, 2026
Chris Drury has the cap room after moving Trocheck, and he already proved this summer he’ll spend it — he handed Pavel Dorofeyev a $77 million deal back in July. Drury has a history of waiting for the deadline to pull off trades like this. But a fanbase coming off two straight years without a playoff game does not want to hear about patience again.
Per @NYRAfterDark, thirty of Batherson’s 71 points came on the power play. That’s a real weapon, not a lottery ticket.
Go get him. Stop waiting for March.
