Senators Re-Sign Drake Batherson to 6-Year, $29.85M Deal
With training camp around the corner, all eyes have been focused on Ottawa’s contract negotiations for their two restricted free agents — Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson.
The Senators can scratch one of item off their to-do list. Today the team announced that they had signed Batherson to a six-year contract worth $29.85 million — an average annual value worth $4.975 million.
According to CapFriendly.com, there are no signing bonuses involved which is consistent with the team’s recent trend. Here is how the structure of Batherson’s deal works out:
Year One: $2.5 million base salary
Year Two: $3.5 million base salary
Year Three: $5.4 million base salary
Year Four: $5.4 million base salary
Year Five: $6.5 million base salary
Year Six: $6.5 million base salary
It was a tidy piece of business for the organization. At 23 years old, the Senators essentially locked up one of their promising offensive players through his prime years. With a six-year deal, the Senators bought out Batherson’s first two unrestricted agent eligible years and did so without breaking the bank.
As the NHL comes out of the pandemic, league revenues are going to inevitably trend upwards, so locking in a player at a relatively reasonable cost feels prudent. The organization can market it as a clear signal that its players want to remain in this market for the foreseeable future.
It could have been in Batherson’s best interests to bank on his talent and take a bridge deal believing that more money could have been made available to him when he has the leverage of unrestricted free agency. But, he can get some comfort knowing that after just one season of being an NHL regular, his future and earning power are secure.
Interestingly, I have seen some reservations online from readers and Twitter followers who have voiced concerns about committing this kind of money and term to a player who has only been an NHL regular for one season. Colin White’s contract is the comparable that some fans have come back to and it is not really fair to Batherson or White.
They are two different players with disparate skill sets.
White was 22 years old when he signed a six-year extension worth $28.5 million ($4.75 million average annual value). Like Batherson, White played predominantly on the Senators’ first line centering Brady Tkachuk and Mark Stone. The difference was that White was not a particularly strong offensive player. Much of the value that he contributed to that line was a function of his defensive aptitude.
At the other end of the spectrum is Batherson. The winger is not a particularly strong defender at this point in his career, but he generates almost all of his value through being a strong offensive finisher.
Using Jack Frasor’s historical player cards from his JFreshHockey website, it is easier to conceptualize just how different White and Batherson are.
Both players shared a similar quality of competition and both were solid contributors on the power play, but there are stark differences in where and how much these players are contributing value.
I can understand some cynicism simply because these two contracts were used as evidence to validate the organization’s direction and ability to hold onto players. But, they are not the same. After the exodus of talent, the Senators were desperate to demonstrate to fans that their players would ink long-term deals. White was simply a beneficiary of circumstance who profited off the fact that the organization used false equivalency to promote contract extensions. Signing restricted free agents like White and Thomas Chabot is a completely different animal to convincing established stars to forego unrestricted free agency.
Given the concerns about White being able to replicate or improve his production, he was the perfect bridge deal candidate. A player whose production would suffer as he was eventually moved down the depth chart as more talented young players came up through the system.
For me, there is no question about Batherson’s production ability or overall value. Unlike White, he has the talent to outperform his contract. The only wrinkle is that I think a lot of people will focus on Brady Tkachuk and whether or not he signs a bridge deal.
If he does, not as many will care that Batherson signed a long-term extension. They will be too focused on the window of opportunity Tkachuk’s bridge deal creates and the pressures a short-term deal put on the franchise to win now.