OTTAWA — Drake Batherson gets a text from his parents after every game. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing at home in Ottawa or if his parents have to nap before watching him play on the West Coast. They watch him and text him every time, keeping track of his statistics and milestones. His dad texted him “one to 100” when Batherson was close to reaching 100 goals for his career.
Batherson didn’t get those texts last Thursday night. There was no need. His parents and grandparents were around to watch him in person.
“Mom made me some home-cooked meals (Wednesday),” Batherson said. “So, she’s probably going to take the credit for that.”
Batherson scored twice and added an assist in a 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins at Canadian Tire Centre that night, scoring for the first time in 11 games and finishing with his first multi-goal game since Dec. 11 when he scored a hat trick and reached the 100-goal plateau.
“Whenever you score and contribute to help the team win, it feels great,” Batherson said. “It was a fun night. I liked how our line played. We just put it behind them and worked to get it back.”
Batherson was on pace for a career-best 94-point season around the time he scored that hat trick. His friend and teammate Tim Stützle reminded the media that he considered him one of the “most underrated players in the league.” That December game was his eighth multi-point effort of the year, but his statistics plunged after that.
Batherson’s numbers have since improved. He has two goals and seven points in his last six games.
“When you’re in a slump, you’ve just got to put your head down and get back to work. It was a lot better that we were winning recently for sure.”
There is time left for him to, at least, come close to matching his previous single-season highs. But the Senators won’t complain about Batherson producing at this juncture in the season. Nor will their fans, who chanted ‘We want playoffs!’ at the Senators’ last home game before the players left the ice.
“We haven’t heard that in a few years here,” Batherson said. “It’s exciting.”
What could Giroux’s next contract look like?
The Senators’ top line of Brady Tkachuk, Stützle and Claude Giroux is at the forefront of the team’s recent success, combining for 11 goals and 24 points since March 1. Each of these players is currently on a points streak. Giroux also had a seven-game points streak earlier this year and a six-game points streak in late January/early February.
Senators’ top line since March 1
| Player | G | A | PTS | PTS streak length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6 |
3 |
9 |
9 |
|
|
2 |
7 |
9 |
3 |
|
|
3 |
3 |
6 |
4 |
The 37-year-old winger is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer, which has been an underlying storyline this season. When I checked in with Giroux’s agent, Pat Brisson, a few weeks back, there wasn’t anything to report. It seems like the team’s end is quiet, too. There doesn’t appear to be any tangible urgency to get something done right now, but things can always change.
So, I decided to take a stab at projecting a new deal for Giroux once his $6.5 million AAV ends after this year. I asked my friends at PuckPedia to crunch some numbers (shoutout to Hart and Taylor!) and here’s what they gave me.
Contract comparables for Giroux
| Player | Contract |
|---|---|
|
2yr, $3,000,000 AAV |
|
|
2yr, $4,000,000 AAV |
|
|
2yr, $4,500,000 AAV |
|
|
2yr, $4,500,000 AAV |
All four of these contracts began at the start of the season. All four players are in their mid-to-late 30s, each with modest production compared to Giroux’s 43 points in 66 games this year. PuckPedia estimates that Giroux’s new contract could be a two-year deal with an AAV between $4.85 million and $5 million in a rising cap environment. Another notable tidbit: Giroux would begin a new deal at 37. This new hypothetical deal would give Giroux the fifth-highest cap hit among forwards on the team.
Even if Giroux’s statistics might warrant those figures, it’s a risk betting on a player in his late 30s coming close to his previous production. Giroux has proven he can still hang with the Senators’ best players in a top-six role while being a valuable leader in their room, but his point totals have trended downward since his first season with Ottawa in 2022-23. He is on pace for an 18-goal, 54-point season, according to Hockey Reference.
The Senators will enter the offseason with over $18 million in cap space, and there should be pressure on Ottawa to add a top-line scoring winger no matter how its season ends. (Let’s see how Fabian Zetterlund fits in the lineup as the season goes on.) But Giroux’s potential contract and willingness to stay in Ottawa will remain a talking point until a resolution surfaces.
Analyzing Cozens’ fit
It is early, but the Senators are surely loving the early returns from the Dylan Cozens-Josh Norris trade with the Buffalo Sabres ahead of the NHL trade deadline on March 7.
Cozens has now played five games with Ottawa and has obtained a point in four of them — two goals and two primary assists — for a season-long four-game points streak. Oh, and three of those points have come at even strength. But he’s also helped generate more chances on the power play, according to HockeyViz.
Cozens has fit well alongside Batherson and David Perron on the second line, with the trio generating a 60.6 percent expected goals rate and 1.3 expected goals against in their limited time together, according to MoneyPuck. Even in Cozens’ first game without a point Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he won 60 percent of his faceoffs, blocked three shots and recorded three hits and one shot on goal.
“It’s been great so far,” Cozens said Saturday. “The group has welcomed me with open arms. Everyone here has made it really easy for me to just come in and focus on playing hockey. So, that’s the focus right now at this time of the year, it’s just winning games. It’s been good so far.”
Like many of his new teammates, Cozens is seeking his first trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. According to The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn’s model, the Senators’ chances of making the postseason were at 97 percent as of Sunday morning.
“It was tough not making the playoffs my first four years,” Cozens said. “To be in a spot right now where you have a chance to do it. You want to be in the playoffs. Everyone wants to play in playoffs to chase down the Stanley Cup. Can’t look too far ahead right now, there’s still work to do. But it’s good hockey.”
The Sens’ win song
A quick note on the Senators’ victory song.
It is always fun to hear the songs NHL teams play in the locker room after a win. Word spread last week that the Senators were playing Drake’s “Nice For What” after wins. Drake lost a high-profile beef against Kendrick Lamar last year, but that hasn’t stopped many in the sports world from embracing the Canadian rapper’s music.
However, Senators locker room DJ Thomas Chabot confirmed that “Nice For What” is actually not the first song played after wins.
“It’s just a random song that played after our winning song,” Chabot said.
Following the Sens’ road win in Toronto, I took out my phone and Shazam’d the first song that played in the locker room. It was “Pick Up the Phone” by British DJ and producer PAWSA featuring vocals from the late, great Nate Dogg, who passed away 14 years ago Sunday. I tried asking Chabot about the song but all he knew was the song title and that it was a “techno mix.”
For those already married to “Nice For What” as the official win song, we won’t stop you.
(Photo of Drake Batherson: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
