Drake Batherson

June 6: General manager Steve Staios told reporters Friday that “there’s no truth” to the speculation regarding Batherson’s trade availability, per Claire Hanna of TSN.

June 3: The Senators are willing to part ways with winger Drake Batherson via trade as they look to acquire an upgrade for their top-six forward group, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen said Tuesday.

Batherson’s name popped up in trade conversation around the deadline, but he ultimately wasn’t moved. Those talks also stemmed more from teams calling on Batherson, not Ottawa actively shopping him. While saying the Sens are trying to move on from him outright is a stretch, there’s a belief “some within the organization are frustrated with his lack of consistency,” Garrioch writes, and they’ll be open to including him in a trade package for a more established scoring forward.

Senators general manager Steve Staios already made one notable change to the core of young players Ottawa had built up before his arrival, swapping out Joshua Norris for Dylan Cozens at this year’s deadline in lieu of a Batherson move. It certainly stands to reason he’d pull off a similar maneuver to help jumpstart the Sens’ offense, which only ranked 18th in the league in 2024-25, as they try to piece together a second straight postseason appearance for the first time since 2012 and 2013.

Batherson’s run in Ottawa began in 2017 as a fourth-round pick. The 6’3″, 200-lb winger nonetheless made his NHL debut less than a year and a half later, and he was a full-time piece by the time the shortened 2020-21 season rolled around.

The comment about his lack of consistency comes across as puzzling. While he may have in-season hot and cold stretches, there are very few more known commodities in the league at present than Batherson. He’s played all 82 games for three years in a row – during that span, he’s recorded 22, 28, and 26 goals and 62, 66, and 68 points, respectively. His usage has also barely varied, averaging between 18 and 19 minutes per game.

He’s now 27 years old, though. That consistency also means his ceiling, at least long-term, has been established as that consistent 25-goal, 65-point winger. Ottawa only had one player, top center Tim Stützle, top that mark this season. With no one else in the system aside from captain Brady Tkachuk slated to routinely hover around or break that plateau, it’s understandable why Staios would be on the hunt for a winger with more game-breaking potential while sacrificing Batherson’s projectable output.

Still, for a relatively cap-strapped team like Ottawa, getting rid of Batherson at his extremely reasonable price point should create some pause. His cap hit is just $4.975MM through 2026-27, after which he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

While the Senators are expected to be looking to add to their roster by Friday’s trade deadline, that hasn’t stopped teams from calling about some of their younger veterans.  To that end, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Ottawa has been receiving trade interest in winger Drake Batherson.

Notably, Garrioch notes that the Sens aren’t actively shopping him and it’s believed that GM Steve Staios isn’t believed to be in any sort of hurry to move Batherson.  But with Ottawa having very limited cap space – around $850K, per PuckPedia – they would need to clear out some money if they want to make any sort of significant change to their roster.  While it has been suggested before that they’d be open to moving center Josh Norris, his $7.95MM price tag through the 2029-30 season makes an in-season move a lot less likely.

Batherson’s contract, however, is a much more palatable one.  He’s signed through the 2026-27 campaign at a $4.975MM price tag, one that’s generally viewed as a team-friendly cap charge.  In theory, moving him would give them some flexibility to try to add a core piece although dealing away Batherson would also obviously open up a hole to fill in their core forward group.

Batherson enters tonight’s game against Chicago in second place in team scoring with 16 goals and 31 assists through 60 appearances while logging 18:30 per night of ice time.  However, he has been a bit quiet as of late; since the calendar flipped to 2025, he has notched just three tallies and eight helpers in 24 games despite a small jump in playing time over that stretch.

Despite the dip in production as of late, Batherson’s recent track record is undoubtedly fueling the interest.  He came into this season with two straight years of at least 22 goals and 62 points under his belt with his 28 goals and 66 points last season representing new career bests.  Even with the slower pace of late, he still has a chance of reaching 20 goals and 60 points for a third straight year.  Accordingly, Staios and the Sens could justifiably place a high asking price for his services if they were to consider moving Batherson.

At the moment, Ottawa will be hard-pressed to do much of consequence on the trade front by Friday at 2 PM ET.  They can maybe add a lower-cost depth piece and that’s about it.  If they do intend to do something bigger, it appears they’ll have at least one option to open up more flexibility with the interest in Batherson.