Defenseman Will Butcher, Where will he go?
It’s that time of year again hockey fans. College free agents hit the open market on August 15th which means it is time for the 31 NHL teams to make pitches to the highly touted College free agent defenseman Will Butcher. Butcher was drafted in the 5th round of the 2013 NHL draft by the Colorado Avalanche. He decided not to sign with the Avs and opted to play college hockey for Denver University instead. During his time at Denver, the Pioneers made it to the NCAA Tournament all four years, appeared in the Frozen Four twice, won their conference tournament, won their conference regular season championship last season, and most importantly are reigning NCAA Champions. His stats over his college carrer are listed below.
Season- 2013-14
Team- U. of Denver
League- NCHC
GP- 38
G- 8
A- 8
Pts- 16
PIM- 8
+/- 0
Season- 2014-15
Team- U. of Denver
League- NCHC
GP- 38
G- 4
A-14
Pts-18
PIM- 8
+/- +6
Season- 2015-16
Team- U. of Denver
League- NCHC
GP- 39
G-9
A-23
Pts- 32
PIM-19
+/- +19
Season- 2016-17
Team- U. of Denver
League- NCHC
GP- 43
G- 7
A- 30
Pts-37
PIM-18
+/- +27
Obviously, Butcher’s performance in College over the past four seasons stand out for a defenseman for many reasons. Butcher had a great all around year this season as he won the NCAA championship with Denver and won the 2017 World Junior Hockey Championships this year with Team USA. In the NHL, finding a defenseman with a high +/- and low penalty minutes is not an easy task. For NHL teams who desperately need a defenseman (cough cough Toronto), Butcher is now an NHL ready defenseman capable of playing every night. Butcher is the best defenseman available right now for teams that don’t want to lose payers in their organization via trade (Toronto again). I will now discuss my Top 5 teams should make a run at Butcher and why.
1. Toronto Maple Leafs
What a surprise! Just to be clear I actually do think this is a good fit for Butcher not just because I am a fan of the team. Toronto had an incredible season last year going from last place, to a playoff spot. The team is loaded with young forwards but significantly lack NHL ready defensive prospects. Signing Butcher would provide more defensive stability for the Leafs and give them ANOTHER young talent to play alongside Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and the other young talent the Leafs boast. Also, the Leafs have one of the best coaches in the league right now in Mike Babcock who has put this young group in a position to win now and clearly works well with young talent. Toronto hasn’t wanted to part with any of their young forwards this offseason to acquire a defenseman which means signing Butcher and giving up nothing could be the way to go to improve on the back end this offseason. If Butcher has the personality to want to play in the biggest hockey market in the world (and can handle it), Toronto is the place to go.
2. New Jersey Devils
Since trading former 4th overall pick Adam Larsson to Edmonton last summer in exchange for Taylor Hall, The Devils have a gaping hole on defense and no real NHL ready prospects to step in. The Devils finished in last place last season, but won the draft lottery giving them the #1 pick. GM Ray Shero has already started to turn things back in the right direction this offseason by passing up on injury prone Nolan Patrick to select Nico Hischier with the 1st overall in last month’s draft. Shero also signed veteran center Brian Boyle and traded for the talented winger Marcus Johansson for two future draft picks. The Devils are still among the teams in the NHL with the highest amount of cap space and are totally capable of making this deal. The pitch has to be on point though, New Jersey isn’t really a preferred free agent destination. However, Shero will have no problem paying the 925k maximum rookie contract, and the chance to play with Hischier and Taylor Hall might be good enough to land Butcher already.
3. Detroit Red Wings
Detroit missed the playoffs this year for the first time since the 1989-1990 season. Despite GM Ken Holland’s best efforts, they still has a huge problem on defense. The core of Danny Dekeyser, Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson, Niklas Kronwall, and others aren’t going to compete in the highly competitive Atlantic Division (as shown last season). Holland did sign veteran Trevor Daley which should help mentor the few young defensive prospects they have in Ouellet, Sproul, and Russo. Adding Butcher to this group would be a significant upgrade and would put Detroit in the right direction in terms of fixing their defense core. Like Toronto, Detroit has many talented young forwards including Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou, and Gustav Nyquist but no significant NHL ready defensive prospects. However, the Red Wings have a limited amount of cap space and still need to sign RFA Andreas Athanasiou. If Detroit is going to be successful at making a pitch to Butcher, they need to make a trade to ensure that they can pay him the maximum rookie salary of 925k. This would be a great fit for Detroit if they could get it done.
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins are in the midst of a dynasty after winning back to back Stanley Cups. They could not have accomplished this feat without their young talent being ready to step in at any times and in Pittsburgh’s case, the playoffs. Even though they won the cup this season, their best defenseman, Kris Letang, was out during the entire playoffs with an injury. This caused GM Jim Rutherford to acquire Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit at the trade deadline for picks and assets. If they Penguins add Butcher to their organization, this means they would have another young defenseman who could play with Olli Maatta, Brian Dumoulin, Derrick Pouliot, and Justin Schultz. The defense would be loaded and could allow Pittsburgh to go for another cup run to possibly make it three in a row. The pitch couldn’t be better as this is a chance for Butcher to play with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and most importantly, a potential mentor in Kris Letang. In this league, you can never have too many good defenseman, therefore I expect Pittsburgh to try and make a run for Butcher’s services on August 15th.
5. Las Vegas Golden Knights
This Vegas option is very interesting to me. As an expansion team, Vegas doesn’t have a lot of NHL ready prospects and are not expected to be a competitor right away. The purpose is to get good draft picks and build through the draft. If they could get Butcher, it would somewhat jumpstart that process. However, if they do sign him, he will want to play in the NHL next season. Vegas doesn’t have that great of a defensive core which means that Butcher should have no problem making the team if he does sign there. Vegas has about 7 million in cap space and they haven’t made any major offseason signings which means that they can afford to offer Butcher the max rookie deal of 925k. The only problem with this is that Butcher may not want to start his carrer on an expansion team and it might be best for him carrer wise to not have the potential distraction of a young professional athlete playing in Las Vegas. Despite this, I believe GM George McPhee should make a run at Butcher to stockpile as many talented young defensemen as possible for the future.
In conclusion, I believe Toronto is the best fit for Butcher because he will be surrounded by players close to him in age which means he can experience certain things at the same time as his teammates (if he is capable of playing in the biggest hockey market in the world). However I believe Pittsburgh will end up signing him because, what kid wouldn’t want to play for Pittsburgh right now? We’ll see what happens come August 15th though. It should be fun!