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.

 

[CorrectOpinion]

Why do we never try this guy with Stu?

 

[Xspyrit]

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.

My thoughts, as I said "we need to upgrade Tkachuk or Batherson", it makes much more sense to trade Tkachuk

He makes 3.25 more for the same production and lesser defensive play... I know the mythical power forward thing, the captaincy, the Tkachuk aura, etc but he also probably has more trade value and the NMC looming like you said.

That said, would Staios have the balls to trade him? I talked about it a few times, for me it's Tkachuk and Norris who would have to be traded IF it has to come to that and with the lack of offense, we might have to switch things up in the forward group. As I have already said, Stutzle is a keeper, Giroux is here to retire, Batherson has too good of a contract, Pinto and Greig are still developing and will be more support offense anyway. It leaves Tkachuk and Norris. 16.2 M$ per year, that would leave a lot of options and they would definitely return something

And wait, 0.53 PPG the last 53 games? That's close to Mathieu Joseph pace from last season (0.49 PPG) and we paid a 3rd to move him and his 2.95 AAV lol

I'm sorry, I know I'm the anti-fanboy but Tkachuk has totally let us down.

Why do we never try this guy with Stu?

He plays about 32% of his ES TOI with Stutzle.

 

[SensontheRush]

...Except we don't have to trade anyone? We're going into FA this year with just under $20m worth of wiggle room.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Tuch for Batherson would be a very smart and excellent trade.

 

[Micklebot]

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.

All depends on the return, of course, but Batherson is good value so certainly not a guy we should be looking to trade.