Toggle sidebar

Player Discussion Drake Batherson (RW) - Part II

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volt
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
 
  • Like
Reactions: umma gumma
Xspyrit said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volt, Xspyrit and LiseL
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.
 
BankStreetParade said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.

CorrectOpinion said:
Why do we never try this guy with Stu?
Click to expand...

He plays about 32% of his ES TOI with Stutzle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cosmix and Volt
Hale The Villain said:
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.
Click to expand...
All depends on the return, of course, but Batherson is good value so certainly not a guy we should be looking to trade.
 
Have a very hard time seeing us becoming a championship winning team with him being part of the team.

It’s just something with his attitude and demeanor on and off the ice that I don’t like, have a hard time pointing out exactly what it is.

Doesn’t really seem he takes things seriously at times, and we need 110% commitment.

Last night was atrocious from him.
 
The true test will be how he bounces back from the laziest and sloppiest performance of his career.

What I don’t get is that he could be a Brady lite if he was hungry enough. He has top line skill, and a frame that can bruise. Consistently leaves us wanting more from both standpoints.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gab6511 and darude
LuckyPierre said:
The true test will be how he bounces back from the laziest and sloppiest performance of his career.

What I don’t get is that he could be a Brady lite if he was hungry enough. He has top line skill, and a frame that can bruise. Consistently leaves us wanting more from both standpoints.
Click to expand...
I would like to upgrade Batherson as he goes cold too much. Easy to say but hard to do. I might be able to tolerate his level of play if we could acquire a top 6 forward to play with Stutzle. Neither Giroux nor Perron are that top 6 forward but cost us $10.5 AAV.
 
Batherson was ass last night and quite often, but he's not bad for the 2nd line, especially at his caphit.

We know what he can do at his best and also his worst (last night), he's somewhere in the middle and absolutely worth his caphit.
 
bicboi64 said:
Batherson was ass last night and quite often, but he's not bad for the 2nd line, especially at his caphit.

We know what he can do at his best and also his worst (last night), he's somewhere in the middle and absolutely worth his caphit.
Click to expand...
He much more often close to his worst.

He has that super hot 10 games and that’s it.

Guy is just a super soft winger who doesn’t want to do anything serious on the ice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom