Drake Batherson is entering the final year of a six-year contract in 2026-27 with the Ottawa Senators. That makes him eligible for a contract extension. With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Tuesday, a new one takes effect the next day. In the new CBA, eight-year deals were no longer an option. This means that if Batherson wanted an eight-year deal, it had to be done before the CBA expired. As of Monday, it looked like Batherson and the Senators were still far apart on a deal.

Deadlines spur action, though, and the two sides came to an agreement. Batherson got an eight-year, $86 million contract from the Senators. Now, he is speaking out about the contract, per a release from NHL.com.

“Really excited. Obviously they've been working at it pretty much all summer and excited it got done before training camp and now I can just relax and play some hockey,” Batherson said. “Obviously going into last year, you think about, ‘Do I want to test the market or do I want to stay here?' and my mind just kept coming back to, I wanted to get a deal done in Ottawa and play here for as long as I can.”

Batherson is coming off a stellar season. He scored 33 goals, which was a career high, and also added 38 assists. This gave him a career high of 71 points, while he missed just three games.

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

The Senators also reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011-12 and 2012-13. Batherson was a key part of those playoff runs, and he is not the only one excited about the future in Ottawa. General manager Steve Staios is excited to have the forward back.

“Drake exemplifies what it is to be an Ottawa Senator,” general manager Steve Staios said. “He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term. We view him as a key part of our core group.”

The Senators open training camp on September 16 with their first preseason contest on September 23. They will open the regular season on the road, facing the Toronto Maple Leafs.