The Ottawa Senators are staring down a hard deadline with Drake Batherson, and the two sides are trying to get an eight-year extension done before Tuesday night’s cutoff. According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, the goal is to finish a long-term deal by 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, the last chance to lock in an eight-year contract under the NHL’s new CBA.
Pierre LeBrun added that while eight years is the preferred route, Batherson could also be open to a six- or seven-year agreement if the money lines up. The timing matters just as much as the term. Batherson reportedly doesn’t want the situation dragging into the season, and Ottawa would rather not have one of its most important forwards playing under a cloud of negotiations.
Batherson is heading into the final year of the six-year, $29.85 million contract he signed before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer. With Brady Tkachuk gone from Ottawa, Batherson’s role on the Senators’ offense has only grown. He’s also been producing on what now looks like a team-friendly deal, which makes this a priority for both sides.
An eight-year contract in the $10 million to $10.5 million annual range would be a major jump. Julian McKenzie, speaking on the Sens Spotlight Podcast, suggested Batherson’s next deal could end up in the neighborhood of players like Alex Tuch and Adrian Kempe. He also noted Ottawa should be fine as long as the number doesn’t get pushed into the $12 million to $14 million range.
Out in Edmonton, the Oilers were never as close to landing Nikita Zadorov as some of the trade chatter suggested. The club eventually worked out a move involving Darnell Nurse and the San Jose Sharks, after earlier reports linked Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to Nurse because they were on his preferred list. One report also had Edmonton and Boston discussing a deal centered on Zadorov.
That idea reportedly went nowhere once Zadorov refused to waive his no-trade clause. When he was asked about the rumored deal on Sunday, though, the Bruins defenseman brushed it aside completely.
“It’s not true. It was something from the imagination.
You’ve been in hockey for a long time and that trade wouldn’t have made sense for anybody, especially for this team. That’s why everyone put it away right away…I have a contract here.
I love it here and I enjoy playing with the guys and everything.”
The Oilers ended up moving Nurse’s contract and brought back young defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp.
In Montreal, the Canadiens made a major commitment of their own, giving Martin St. Louis a multi-year extension.
Pierre LeBrun reported the deal runs through the 2029-30 season. The team made the announcement Monday, signaling that it sees St.
Louis as the right coach to keep steering the group into its next phase.
St. Louis arrived in 2022 with no professional coaching experience and took over a team in the middle of a rebuild.
Since then, Montreal’s point totals have climbed from 68 in 2022-23 to 76, then 91, and then 106 last season. The Canadiens have reached the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and made it to the Eastern Conference Final in 2025-26.
“Marty has done a terrific job leading our young team,” said GM Kent Hughes. “He is a great communicator and teacher. We look forward to his continued efforts to mold this group into a championship-caliber team.”
Chris Kreider, one of Montreal’s newest additions, also spoke Monday about why he signed. He agreed to a one-year deal this weekend, and said the Canadiens came after him quickly.
“Montreal was pretty aggressive right out of the gate,” Kreider said when speaking to the media on Montreal on Monday. “Everything they’re doing here the last few years now, the group that they have. I tried explaining to my friends that this isn’t a sport here, it’s a religion.”
In Other News...
Arber Xhekajs Deal Puts His Canadiens Future Under A Brighter Spotlight
Arber Xhekajs latest contract situation says as much about timing as it does about the player himself. According to Nicolas Cloutier, the one-year deal was not something imposed by the Canadiens, but a choice made by Xhekaj and his agent after a summer spent waiting to see whether a trade would ease the congestion on Montreals blue line. His ice time last season never fully matched the long-term role many had imagined for him, which only added to the sense that this was a player trying to keep his options open.
Medium-term contract ideas were also reportedly in the mix, which makes the eventual short-term route even more revealing about where things stood. For Xhekaj, the next season now carries real weight: a stronger year would not only help him re-establish his place in the lineup, it could also put him in a better spot when the next round of negotiations comes around. [Read more 🡒]
Jacob Fowler Gives Canadiens Fans A Rookie Race Worth Watching
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What makes Fowler worth tracking is less about immediate hype than the path he could force if his development keeps moving the right way. The rookie race is always shaped by opportunity as much as talent, and for Montreal the real question is whether Fowler can arrive at the point where the Canadiens have a decision to make about how quickly to bring him into the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens May Have An Unexpected Arber Xhekaj Plan
With Kaiden Guhle unavailable and Montreal still sorting through its blue-line depth, Martin St-Louis is keeping the door open to a different kind of lineup wrinkle for Arber Xhekaj. The Canadiens still view Xhekaj mainly as a defenseman, especially after he recently signed a one-year contract, but the coaching staff is clearly thinking about ways to keep him in the mix as roster needs shift from night to night.
Xhekaj has already gotten a brief look on the wing once before, and the idea is no longer being treated as a one-off curiosity. For Montreal, the appeal is simple: a physical, versatile player who can help in more than one spot gives St-Louis another option while the team waits to see how the rest of the lineup settles in. [Read more 🡒]