Cale Makar’s new deal has taken over the NHL conversation, but it doesn’t really move the needle on Drake Batherson’s situation in Ottawa.
That’s the cleanest answer. Makar and Batherson aren’t the kind of players you line up side by side and treat as direct comparables.
They play different positions, bring different value, and affect a team in different ways. None of that means Batherson isn’t a quality player.
It just means Makar’s contract doesn’t suddenly reshape the Senators’ thinking in any meaningful, direct way.
Even if Makar had landed at $100 million per season, it still wouldn’t have changed Batherson’s case with Ottawa or with anyone else. The only real angle Batherson’s camp can take from it is the broader one: salaries are climbing fast across the NHL, and that tide is lifting just about everybody.
From a Senators perspective, there is at least one thing to like about where the record-setting money went. It went to the league’s best defenseman. If it had gone to a forward, that would have complicated matters much more for Ottawa.
Still, the larger market picture does matter. The cap is going up, and player salaries have jumped with it.
High-end stars have moved from the $12 million to $14 million range, with Kirill Kaprizov at $17 million, and then all the way to $18 million and $20 million. That kind of escalation is exactly what teams and fans should expect when the economics of the league shift.
It’s not really a hockey-only story, either. It’s supply and demand. There are only so many elite wingers, defensemen, and goalies out there, and when a team gets a chance to secure one, it usually has to pay.
For Ottawa, that likely leaves one path with Batherson: pay up. The Senators can’t simply go out and find another comparable top-six winger waiting around. Unless Steve Staios has something special in his back pocket, the sense is that the Sens may have to swallow hard and make the deal.
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If a deal is not reached soon, the pressure only grows on both sides to find common ground before the late-summer window closes and the start of the season arrives. Bathersons situation is drawing attention not just because of his value to Ottawa, but because the next step could determine whether the Senators keep control of the conversation or are forced to watch the process spill deeper into the year. [Read more 🡒]
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The next step for Kleven is less about proving he belongs and more about smoothing out the rough edges in his game. His puck-moving under pressure still wavered at times, and the penalty minutes climbed as the workload got heavier, which is part of the learning curve for a defenseman being asked to handle more responsibility. Even so, Ottawa came away encouraged by what it saw in the spring, where Klevens playoff run hinted at a player who can be trusted when the games tighten up. [Read more 🡒]