Player Discussion Drake Batherson (RW) - Part II

[branch]

I would look into trading him for someone who is a dog on the puck with some good pace to his game. Solid complimentary scorer but when he is not scoring he isn't doing much else.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I wonder if the 2 goals called back in the back to back with Nashville and Tampa would relax some of the negativity.
He could be going through something physically or mentally.

He is one of our best players that has gone through a long drought and has been snake bitten to the max

people were lauding him 4 or 5 games back for his beast play in the dzone.

Very fickle and inpatient crowd to please

 

[BankStreetParade]

I think that'd be a bit greedy

Batherson has the 18th best PPG among RWs in the league since 2021-22 (Giroux is 15th) and 35th among Wingers (not exact as NHL.com screws up on positions for certain players)

He's definitely 3rd right now but actually he has one more point than Tkachuk this season. And that might be the problem, Tkachuk might be an impact player when he's on (but not at all in 2025 so far) but he's not a premium offensive forward like those elite teams have. We have Stutzle and 2 very good 1st liners. I think we'd need Stutzle, another premium offensive talent and then a very good 1st line forward.

Then very good 2nd and 3rd line talent but that's another story as we're missing some in there too (Norris, Giroux, Pinto, Greig, ??????, ??????)

Summary, we need to upgrade Tkachuk or Batherson, we need to add a very good 2nd line forward and a very good 3rd line forward. Perron and Amadio were chosen for that but while they're "fine", they're just not good enough to help this team rise higher, same for one of Tkachuk or Batherson

The problem is how the hell we do all that?

At $5M against a cap that will be $100M+ in a few years, Batherson is the type of contract you have to keep in the fold. He gives you so much scoring versus cap flexibility, it's not even funny. Unfortunately, it's starting to look like Tkachuk is the odd man out. They can't have an $8M winger who doesn't put up elite offensive numbers or elite two-way play. I love the physicality, the board work, the ability to fight just about anyone, etc. but those are traits that only work when you're getting one of the first 2 things I mentioned.

7th on the team in ppg (0.53) over the last 32 games...that's just not acceptable. It seems the higher the pressure, the less he performs and we don't have the time to consider whether that will change down the road with a full NMC looming.

 

[bicboi64]

I woudln't trade Bath even if he only ends up with 50 points this season. He's on too good of a contract to move and isn't a liability. His being our 3rd best option (at worst) on offense is a roster construction problem and he's still perfectly capable of being the 2nd or 3rd best option.

 

[Hale The Villain]

This board is so bipolar.

Batherson has gone cold but he still has 44 points in 55 games on a 5M salary, and his defensive game is significantly improved from last season.

In what universe does trading him help our team? Insane.