Ottawa Senators Report Cards: Drake Batherson
By Daniel Bruce
The 23-year-old Nova Scotia native finally broke through in his third pro season
After stringing together back-to-back dominant seasons in Belleville, Drake Batherson finally stuck in Ottawa as a top-point producer.
2020-21 Stats
56 GP, 17G-17A-34P, 111 shots,102 hits, 16:28 TOI/GP
82-game pace: 25G-25A-50P, 162 shots, 149 hits
Batherson’s 34 points positioned him 4th among Senators skaters in points and his 17 goals placed him in a tie for 2nd on the team, trailing only Connor Brown. The Senators’ 2017 4th round pick was a handful on the man advantage and led the team with 15 power-play points, his skill and vision were a huge reason for his success.
While the power-play production was there since the beginning of the season, Batherson started to take flight at even strength when he was promoted to the top-line alongside Josh Norris and Brady Tkachuk. They found instant chemistry and look destined to be the team’s top line for next season.
Not to be forgotten: Batherson enjoyed a phenomenal 6-game goal streak stretching from February 18th to March 1st, the heroics are recapped below.
Something that seems to be universally underrated about Batherson’s game is his physicality, he usually finishes checks, and standing at 6’3″ and over 200 pounds, there’s no excuse for him not to be dominant physically. Batherson’s 102 hits ranked him 3rd on the Senators as he was never afraid to throw his body around, forming an imposing duo with Brady Tkachuk.
Let’s take a quick look at Batherson’s analytics compared to his teammates:
- 47.71 CF% (17th)
- 29.51 xGF (5th)
- 49.96 xGF% (7th)
- 12.41 HDCF (4th)
The third-year pro succeeded in creating chances while he was on the ice, whether for his teammates or himself. His high scores in xGF (expected goals-for), xGF% (expected goals-for percentage and HDCF (High Danger Corsi-for) are all a result of his ability to create dangerous offensive chances.
Ottawa Senators. DRAKE BATHERSON. B+. In a season where Batherson had to finally make the jump to the NHL full-time, he didn’t disappoint. The talented forward was able to find chemistry with Tim Stützle early in the season and the two created quite the dynamic duo, pairing up for some highlight-reel goals along the way.<p> </p><p>Once things went stale between the two, Batherson was promoted to play with Josh Norris and Brady Tkachuk and they never looked back.</p><p> </p><p>At the start of the season, I think any Senators fan would take the season that Batherson had. He grew in multiple aspects of the game and could be relied upon by D.J. Smith in the last minute, whether leading or trailing.</p><p> </p><p>It wouldn’t be surprising to see Batherson continue as a top-line contributor as the Senators continue to progress towards being a contender</p>. RW
All metrics via Natural Stat Trick