Reigning Hobey Baker award winner Will Butcher visited the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday according to David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and is still expected to take up to a week to make his decision. The Golden Knights gave Butcher a pitch on where the organization is headed, but according to GM George McPhee the 22-year old defenseman now has to “take a look at [team] facilities and understand the city a little bit to make that final decision.”
McPhee was complimentary towards Butcher’s skill set in his interview with Schoen, saying that the young defender can run a powerplay. Even with more than a dozen defenders under contract for this season, Vegas doesn’t have a pure powerplay quarterback outside of Erik Brannstrom, who won’t be playing in North America this season. While several others have the talent to do so (Nate Schmidt, Colin Miller and Shea Theodore immediately come to mind), Butcher could be offered a spot right away to play to his strengths as a sort of recruiting tactic.
Butcher’s other likely destinations are New Jersey and Buffalo where he’s been linked since becoming a free agent on August 16th, though any number of other teams could enter the sweepstakes. It’s tough to put a projection on Butcher in the NHL, as some believe he’ll fail to reach the point where he can be relied upon at both ends of the rink. That’s clearly worth the risk for the Golden Knights as they look to build instead of compete in their first year.
Butcher is going to end up in Buffalo.