TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning signed forward Austin Watson to a one-year contract worth $776,665, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.

The 31-year-old Watson played 75 games for the Ottawa Senators last season, recording nine goals and 11 points. Three of Watson’s nine goals came shorthanded, and he ranked tied for first on the Senators for shorthanded goals. Watson was third on the Senators for hits with 165 and blocked 61 shots, the most among Ottawa forwards and seventh among all Ottawa skaters.

Watson has played nine seasons in the NHL between the Senators and Nashville Predators, tallying 58 goals and 114 points over 482 games. He played four preseason games with the Lightning in 2023 on a professional tryout offer.

Watson was originally a first-round selection (18th overall) of Nashville in the 2010 NHL Draft.

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Austin Watson and Drake Batherson scored in a 47-second span in the third period to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday night.

Watson broke a tie at 4:31 into the third period with a deflection of Travis Hamonic’s point shot and Batherson fired a wrist shot from the slot past past goalie Sam Montembeault at 5:18.

The gritty winger had also tallied seven minutes in penalties during the game, the majority of which came from a fight with Michael Pezzetta in the second period.

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Austin Watson and Team USA have advanced past the Preliminary stage at the 2022 IIHF World Championships in Finland. USA won 5-of-7 contests in the preliminary round, three regulation and two overtime wins. Watson’s veteran leadership and physical play has helped the USA through a tough Group B that included powerhouse teams like Finland, Sweden, and Czech Republic. The USA squad finished in the fourth spot of Group B and will take on Group A’s Switzerland in their quarter-final matchup.

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WD Sports and Entertainment Client Austin Watson has been selected to represent Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Championships in Tampere and Helsinki Finland. The Michigan native had a fantastic finish to his 2021-2022 NHL season with the Ottawa Senators netting seven goals in the month of April and finishing with 10 goals on the year.

Watson was relied on heavily for veteran leadership on a young Senators team.

This will be the third time Watson has represented his country in total, and the first time in close to a decade since the 2012 U20 IIHF World Juniors where Watson led the USA in points with 3 goals and 6 assists in 6 games played.

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Austin Watson reached two huge milestones in the Ottawa Senators game Saturday. Watson, playing in his 400th career NHL Game also recorded his 100th career point sending a shot towards the net before being redirected into the net by a teammate. Now in 400GP Watson has 47 goals and 53 assists for 100 points and has recorded 8 points in his last 12 games.

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