Drake Batherson and his parents, Norm And Deeann Batherson, live in Cape Breton. The Ottawa Senators hockey player grew up around professional players.
Drake is an ice hockey right winger who plays for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Back then, he got drafted by the Ottawa Senators in the 2017 NHL Draft in the fourth round and 121st overall.
Recently on Monday’s game, Batherson scored a goal in it with a 4-2 loss to the Islanders. Batherson has contributed a point in three matches out of his last four games. He looks forward to five goals and 14 points in 15 games this season.
Drake is one of the Senators’ core forwards, averaging over 18:00 of ice time, which includes around 3:30 on the power play. The analysts say that he should continue to put up critical offensive numbers as long as he’s in that role.
Drake Batherson Parents Norm And Deeann Batherson
Drake Batherson was born to parents Norm Batherson and Deeann Batherson. His family has a long connection to hockey and NHL.
Looking at Drake’s father’s profile, we can see how he was involved in hockey during his early days. And we can also notice how his mother also admires and has a deep interest in these sports, as she was also into hockey during her teenage years.
She mentioned that she has been watching every game as her son, Drake, is into hockey. She expresses her excitement knowing that Drake has brought out new hockey fans when people tell her they have never watched hockey before.
Drake’s Father Was A Hockey Player
Ottawa Senators hockey player Drake Batherson’s father, Norm Batherson, was also a professional player. He played for the Ottawa organization with the Prince Edward Island Senators and the Thunder Bay Senators.
In 1993, Norm signed a pro contract with the Senator’s organization. He also played with its American Hockey League farm team in Charlottetown. Likely to this, 19-year-old Drake also signed a contract with the Ottawa Senators just like his father did.
In the meantime, due to Drake’s dad’s frequent placements in different cities and countries for hockey matches, Drake also had to relocate with his parents too often.
His father is a North Sydney native. But Drake Batherson was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as his dad was in his minor league pro career at that time. For this reason, Drake has dual American-Canadian citizenship.
From there, the family moved to Germany, where Norm played seven seasons of pro hockey with four teams. And young Drake was sharpening his hockey skills in each German city they went to.
Batherson also recalled traveling to different places, which were all because of his dad’s hockey games. He also looks back on how he would get up early and go to the hockey field with his dad whenever there was free ice.
Batherson Family Is Full Of Professional Players
Not only just Drake and his father, Norm but the Batherson family is also filled with professional players. Talking about his family background, Drake’s grandfather, Matt Batherson, used to play junior, senior, and college hockey himself.
When they got the news that Drake made it to the team, they got all pretty excited. It was the time when the Screaming Eagles drafted him in the sixth round of the 2015 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft. At that time, he was a New Minas, N.S. native.
Batherson’s grandfather expresses how they hope their kids will be better than them, and in Drake’s case, it was going to happen. He also mentions that his father, Norm was a hell of a hockey player, and now Drake might be even better.
As a former player, his grandad realized that Drake had all kinds of skills since he was four years old. With all the expectations, Matt wished for a gold medal from him as his best Christmas present.
Similarly, his uncle or his mom’s brother, Dennis Vial, was also into sports as he played several seasons with Ottawa in the 1990s and was one of the NHL’s most frequent fighters over that time.
Drake Batherson Sister Mae Is Also A Hockey Player
The Batherson family, also known as the hockey family hailing from New Minas, has Mae as another hockey player.
Mae Batherson, Drake’s younger sister, had secured a full scholarship to Syracuse University starting in the 2019 to 2020 season.
In an interview, Mae mentioned that one of her goals since she started playing hockey, was to get to the highest level of women’s hockey. She also envisioned trying to earn a scholarship and a degree by playing university hockey.
She spent five years with King’s-Edgehill’s elite-level girls’ hockey team based in Windsor. She mentioned that the experience from it helped her gain valuable exposure throughout North America.
Batherson doesn’t forget to mention how Drake has been one of her real role models growing up. And looking at one of his dreams come true has pushed her to want to work towards making her dream come true as well.
Drake Batherson’s Sports Enthusiast Mother
During an interview, Drake and Mae’s proud mom Deeann Batherson mentioned how thrilled she was to see her kids bringing in the rewards of their hard work and dedication.
Deeann merrily remembers her children setting goals such as shooting 1,000 pucks a day or making a provincial team. She says her kids weren’t getting too competitive with each other though they were only two and a half years apart in age. However, they are significant support to each other.
Deeann recalled playing hockey as a kid. She remembered girls’ teams consisting of players ranging in age from 12 to 18. But she’s happy to recognize more opportunities for girls like her daughter these days.
No wonder she added how excited she was to encounter the growth in the female games recognizing the substantial gains in the sports during the last ten decades.