Senators Right Not To Make Drastic Drake Batherson Trade Amid NHL Deadline Rumors
Senators Right Not To Make Drastic Drake Batherson Trade Amid NHL Deadline Rumors
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Despite a rather middling season, the Ottawa Senators are still clinging to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference that, if it holds, will net them a playoff appearance this postseason.
Still, teams have reached out to the club about a player or two ahead of the NHL trade deadline on March 7, including 26-year-old right-winger Drake Batherson.
The Ottawa Citizen's Bruce Garrioch reported that teams have "kicked tires" on Batherson, with some believing a change of scenery could help course-correct a player who is second in scoring on the Senators, but whose inconsistency has led to just three goals in his last 30 games.
Garrioch noted that a trade is unlikely, though, with team officials hoping to fix things from within.
Giving up on Batherson and shipping him out of Ottawa would be a drastic trade move for a team that is not out of the playoff picture and, perhaps more importantly for the team's long-term future.
The American-born player still has 16 goals and 49 points this season and has averaged 18 minutes of ice time over the last four years. That 24 of his points have come on the power play suggests the team has a player who can take advantage of opportunities and either find the net or set his teammates up to.
With a palatable contract ($4.975 million through 2027), and plenty of upside, the team must retain Batherson and work on coaching him through whatever roadblock he is experiencing that has limited his production over the last two-dozen or so games.
The team has issues with its salary cap and with just $850,000 in space according to Puckpedia, it will have to address it sooner rather than later. Perhaps it does so ahead of the deadline but Batherson should not be in that equation.
Keep him, let him play through his recent struggles, and benefit from having a solid scorer on the roster, on an affordable contract, for the next two seasons.
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