Senators GM Steve Staios used a recent question-and-answer session with season ticket holders to touch on three of the biggest talking points around the club: Drake Batherson’s next contract, what’s left to do with the roster, and a pair of fringe candidates trying to earn jobs out of camp.
The Batherson situation was the headliner. Extension chatter has been floating around for weeks, and late last month it was reported that the sides were not especially close on a new deal, with Batherson’s next contract being projected to clear $10 million per season. Staios made it clear the team wants to keep the winger in Ottawa.
“There’s no secret that we want to get Drake Batherson signed. That conversation is ongoing with Drake, and it takes two sides to come to a deal. But there’s been good dialog as we move forward.”
“He’s a homegrown talent. It’s a great story.
He continues to get better and we feel like we have a very great, strong, contending team with a chance to win. We want him to be a part of it.”
Batherson is coming off another big offensive season, finishing with 33 goals and 38 assists in 79 games. He also averaged a point per game in Ottawa’s first-round sweep by Carolina.
The 28-year-old has kept inching upward year after year, turning himself into a top-line producer while still carrying a $4.975 million cap hit. Any new deal would raise Ottawa’s internal pay scale, with Tim Stutzle currently sitting as the team’s highest-paid player at $8.35 million per season.
Staios also addressed the roster after the Brady Tkachuk trade to Florida before the draft. He said the club was able to flip one of the picks for William Eklund to bring in a capable top-six replacement, and he added that he is “certainly not done” building the group.
Ottawa has a little more than $4 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia, and no unsigned free agents left on the books. That gives Staios room to chase one of the veterans still on the market or to hold some cap space back for a possible in-season trade addition. The move may not come right away, but the Senators appear set to add at some point.
Staios also pointed to a couple of players on the bubble who could push their way onto the opening-night roster. He said wingers Sammy Blais and Philip Tomasino both have a shot to make the team.
Blais split last season between Montreal and Toronto after bouncing around on waivers, and he put up eight points in 21 NHL games before clearing and finishing in Laval. Tomasino’s recent track record is a little different: he played 61 NHL games as recently as the 2024-25 season, but last year he appeared in only nine games with Pittsburgh and spent most of the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he produced 15 points in 14 games. Blais signed a two-year contract in July, while Tomasino agreed to a one-year deal.
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Batherson is eligible for a new deal, and his camp is believed to be looking for a major long-term contract, the kind that would place him among the clubs highest-paid forwards. For the Senators, that puts a premium on getting the number and term right before another team decides the winger is worth chasing, even if Ottawa still has the upper hand for now. [Read more 🡒]