‘My mind just kept coming back’: Behind Batherson’s decision to stay in Ottawa

When Drake Batherson thought about staying in Ottawa, he thought about a lot of people.

He thought about the medical staff, the equipment staff, the security staff, and the janitorial staff. He thought about fans who have stopped him to say hello in the grocery store. He thought about people he’s met on the city’s golf courses. And obviously, he thought about his teammates.

“My mind just kept coming back,” Batherson told media on Tuesday afternoon, after signing an eight-year, $86 million contract that will make him an Ottawa Senator through the 2034–35 season.

“I want[ed] to get a deal done in Ottawa and play here for as long as I can,” he added. “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. So once I got that call, I officially signed the contract, I was pretty fired up.”

Batherson stepped up to the occasion and led the team in playoff scoring last April, scoring three goals and an assist in four games. He made it clear that he is excited about the team’s future and has no doubt that the team’s young core will continue to keep a contention window open, and wants to contribute to a lot more of those playoff runs in the future.

“I think what we’ve built here over the last couple of years, all of us are just going to increasingly get better,” he said. “We’ve added a few guys to help that out as well. So these are a group of guys that I love, and I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Batherson is the second-longest serving Senator, after Thomas Chabot. He’s entering his seventh season playing with Tim Stützle, his fifth with Jake Sanderson, and fifth with Claude Giroux. He says along with that core, the city itself is a familiar constant that he wants to keep in his life.

“I think the connections I made away from the rink, the people I’ve met, how easy they make it for me and my family when I’m here — 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, and that’s why I wanted to be here,” said Batherson.

“Amazing fans, ever since day one. Whether it’s running into someone at the grocery store, or running into kids wherever, it’s an amazing fan base. Obviously, I’ve seen that for eight years now, especially in the playoffs, it’s electric, so I’m definitely excited to be around [the fans] for a lot longer.”

Batherson was passed over in the first year of eligibility for the QMJHL draft in 2014. After growing a few inches, he was drafted in the sixth round in his second season of eligibility but ended up playing for the Valley Wildcats of the Maritime Junior Hockey League during the 2015–16 season.

While he did get called up to Cape Breton of the QMJHL for 10 games that season, he spent the year adjusting to the higher calibre of competition in Jr. A hockey. He finished that regular season with four goals and 19 points in 28 games.

“I was just talking to my dad about that last night,” Batherson told local media on Tuesday, reminiscing on how far he’d come.

“I had four goals at 17 in Jr. A. I’ve come a long way since then, but 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. And ultimately, it’s a dream come true, whether you play in this league for 10 games or 1,000. That’s the dream.”

Batherson was again passed over in his first year of NHL draft eligibility in 2016 before being drafted in the fourth round by the Senators in 2017. But maybe it’s owing to those two disappointments that he’s been so steadfast in his commitment to build every season, notably tying a 66-year-old NHL record last season for the most consecutive seasons with an improved point total.

“I think going into every offseason, you're trying to improve whether you had 120 points or you didn't have a good year,” said Batherson, who trains in the summer with a group of players from Nova Scotia that includes Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. 

“I think my mindset's always been trying to get better and never being satisfied. Ultimately, I think that's the best thing I've been good at my whole career, going into junior, is just being able to adapt and just trying to get better every day.”

Batherson, who turned 28 just after the Sens were eliminated from the playoffs last spring, has a chance to climb a few franchise leaderboards over the course of his contract.

He enters 2026–27 tied with Tim Stützle for ninth on the franchise goals leaderboard with 149. He needs 19 this season to surpass Mike Fisher for seventh on the list, and 39 to break into the top five all-time (should he get there before Stützle).

Similarly, he enters the season 10th on the franchise points leaderboard with 364, needing 36 this season to climb into seventh place. With 128 more points, he’d surpass Alexei Yashin for fourth on the team’s all-time leaderboard.

“I mean, my dream was to play one game. It’s hard to believe I’m here where I’m at today,” said Batherson. “But I guess just the time and the work I put in, and the passion I have just about the game of hockey got me here, and I’m thrilled to be doing what I’m doing, it’s a dream come true.”

And while he joked that general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios may steal his Lépine Apartments commercial deal, he is thankful for the organization’s trust in him, with the $86 million due to him over the next eight years the largest commitment in franchise history.

“I especially want to thank Michael Andlauer, the ownership, Steve Staios, for having the trust in me and giving me this contract,” said Batherson.

“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.”

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