Will Butcher To Meet With More Teams Today
Butcher-watch is alive and well, with Mike Chambers of the Denver Post reporting that Will Butcher is heading to New Jersey today to meet with the Devils, and will also have a meeting with the Los Angeles Kings at some point before making his decision this Sunday. Butcher has been linked to the Buffalo Sabres and Vegas Golden Knights as well, though there still doesn’t seem to be a favorite to land him at this point.
The 22-year old defenseman is looking for long-term success, but nearly every place he’s visiting also offers a quick path to the NHL. The Devils have had a big offseason, starting with the drafting of Nico Hischier and continuing through their signing of Drew Stafford today. Adding Butcher to their defense would be the cherry on top, even if there are doubts of his next-level ability.
A powerplay quarterback and puck-mover, Butcher would offer something for the Devils that they currently don’t have outside of Damon Severson. They did add Mirco Mueller this summer, but still lack depth on the back end. Similarly, the Kings have seen Brayden McNabb selected by Vegas and could use some depth on defense. With rumors already starting to surround Drew Doughty, their group could take an even bigger hit at some point in the near future.
Will Butcher To Make Decision On Sunday, Buffalo Sabres Remain In Race
Will Butcher will indeed make his decision this weekend, confirming to Mike Morreale of NHL.com that Sunday is the day. In what is turning into quite the story for a player who has done little to prove he’s ready for the NHL, Butcher will “[make his] decision on Sunday with [his] family and agent there.” Morreale confirms that four teams remain in the mix including the Buffalo Sabres and Vegas Golden Knights.
Latest On Will Butcher
In the ongoing saga of Will Butcher, Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the free agent defenseman is still meeting with various teams. Dreger says that Butcher has whittled his list down to three or four clubs, and will make a decision at the beginning of next week at the latest. Yesterday it was confirmed that Butcher had met with the Vegas Golden Knights, and trips to the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils have also been reported.
It will be interesting to see if other free agent defensemen like Cody Franson and Dennis Wideman get a little more interest once Butcher is off the board. Last year, after Jimmy Vesey signed with the New York Rangers, Brandon Pirri, Jiri Hudler and Dominic Moore all inked contracts within the next ten days.
Butcher’s size and overall defensive game makes him hard to project into a team’s top-4, but his offensive skill and ability to run a powerplay is hard to find on the open market, especially at his age. He’ll be signing a two-year, entry-level contract wherever he ends up.
“Positive” Talks Continue Between Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres finished re-signing their restricted free agents recently when they inked Zemgus Girgensons to a two-year contract, and immediately turned their attention (if it hadn’t been there already) to an extension for budding superstar Jack Eichel. With Connor McDavid receiving his eight-year, $100MM extension early from the Edmonton Oilers, many wondered if Eichel would also be locked up this summer. The Sabres are clearly trying to get it done before camp, and when Dan Fetes of WROC in Buffalo caught up with Sabres GM Jason Botterill today he seemed very confident they’d be able to.
Our discussions continue to be very positive. It’s obviously a little bit of a new market this summer with some of the different contracts that have come out, but our discussions have been very positive. At the end of the day, we certainly want to get Jack signed up for the max amount of term possible and he has the belief. All our discussions have been positive about the contract, but also just about the season and his preparation in general.
Botterill goes on to discuss the connection Eichel and new head coach Phil Housley have already made, but the most important takeaway for fans is that there is no animosity between the two sides. An extension seems inevitable at some point, but negotiations have definitely been impacted by McDavid’s deal and others like Leon Draisaitl or even Ryan Johansen and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Eichel remains under his entry-level deal for one more season, but will be in line for his big raise starting in 2018-19.
Though he missed a big chunk of last season to injury, Eichel still recorded 57 points and ranked 15th in the entire league in points-per-game. That was ahead of other star centers like Tyler Seguin and John Tavares, leading many to believe that he could take a step and push towards the top of the leaderboards next year. That’ll take a healthy season and an improved overall game by the Sabres, but with the added comfort of an eight-year extension behind him it’s definitely not out of the question.
Afternoon Notes: Flyers, Panarin, Butcher
Even though the Philadelphia Flyers picked second overall in the 2017 draft, they weren’t that bad of a team. The Flyers actually finished the season with a 33-39-10 record, good enough for 88 points. Eleven teams finished worse in the standings than the Flyers. So, while the team wasn’t at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the team did make some changes. They got a little younger, trading away 25-goal scorer Brayden Schenn for struggling Jori Lehtera, a 2017 first-round pick and a conditional first-round pick in 2018, they let defenseman Michael Del Zotto walk and they swapped goaltenders, replacing veteran Steve Mason with Brian Elliott. They also drafted second-overall pick Nolan Patrick in the draft this year.
However, Philly.com’s Sam Donnellon writes that it will be very difficult to measure in which direction the team will go this year. Even with many of their veterans returning, there are too many unknowns, including the defense could have two or more rookie defensemen, both Patrick and top prospect Oskar Lindblom could make the team out of training camp and their goaltending still looks to be less than stellar. Some of those points could be positives as Lindblom and Patrick could have big first seasons or Elliott could have a comeback season.
The scribe writes that a lot of the teams success or lack thereof will fall on third-year coach Dave Hakstol, who must figure out how to fit all the pieces together while developing the team’s emerging youth.
- In an interview with Artemi Panarin in a Russian newspaper, SB Nation’s Dave Melton got a translated copy, in which he states he was surprised to be traded from Chicago, but is eager to move on to Columbus and hopes for an even bigger role with the Blue Jackets. The fact that multiple players have said they would like to play alongside him including Alexander Wennberg, is what Panarin says is exciting about the move. “That’s why I see this trade as a springboard and not a pitfall.”
- While likely meaningless, Denver Post’s Mike Chambers tweeted a picture of unrestricted free agent defenseman and Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher at Denver International Airport on Friday, carrying a bag with the Buffalo Sabres logo on it. Chambers suggests that his first visit was to Buffalo. The Sabres, Vegas Golden Knights, Columbus Blue Jackets and the New Jersey Devils have been reported to have reached out to the free agent out of the University of Denver.
Buffalo, Eichel Hope To Have Extension In Place By Training Camp
There were some confused faces a couple of months ago when fading veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland was one of the first players that the Vegas Golden Knights began to negotiate with when the team’s clock started to get the first-crack at negotiating with free agents. Afterall, the long-time veteran was never a blueliner to put up offensive numbers, but it was his defensive skills and speed that had begun to show signs of wear and tear in the last year or two.
Yet, the Golden Knights chose to ink the 35-year old to a one-year, $1MM deal instead of taking one of Calgary’s exposed players in the expansion draft. Perhaps the main reason is that Engelland has been an offseason resident of Las Vegas for the last 14 years, according to Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated. He initially spent two years in Las Vegas starting in 2003, playing for the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers, where he eventually met his wife and then settled down in the city. His knowledge and experience with the fledgling sports city has proven valuable to many Vegas-bound players who are slowly arriving for the team’s inaugural season. The veteran has helped several players including defenseman Nate Schmidt and forward Erik Haula in getting settled before the season starts.
Engelland’s veteran presence and leadership skills should prove valuable to a stable of young defenseman such as Schmidt, Shea Theodore, Luca Sbisa, Brayden McNabb, Jonathon Merrill and Colin Miller amongst several others.
- Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News writes that despite an earlier rumor that Boston’s David Pastrnak might be traded which was quickly shot down by Bruins’ general manager Don Sweeney, the team’s hopes of signing him to a six-year deal for $6MM annually is not going to happen. Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl‘s new eight-year, $64MM deal will only make negotiations with Pastrnak’s camp more challenging for the GM. Richardson writes that he believes Pastrnak’s camp may not ask for the $8.5MM AAV that Draisaitl received, but the Bruins must at least come up to a minimum of $7MM annually to get a long-term deal struck.
- Speaking of long-term deals, Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington writes that phenom Jack Eichel has made it explicitly clear that he wants to sign a long-term deal to stay in Buffalo. The scribe also writes that both sides want the extension completed before training camp starts next month. “I’ve made it clear that I want to be a Sabre. I want to be in Buffalo when we start winning,” Eichel reiterated. “I want to reward the city. It’s been two great years. I don’t want to go anywhere else.” After recent extensions for Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, the team must figure out where Eichel’s contract should fit. Harrington suggests a deal around $9MM per year is what Buffalo hopes to ink him to. The 20-year old is coming off a second 24-goal season, but this year he did it in fewer games, having missed 21 games due to a high ankle sprain suffered at the beginning of the season.
Jack Eichel Contract Could Push $9.5MM Per Season
The recent signing of Leon Draisaitl to an eight-year, $68MM contract has put the spotlight on some other players around the league, perhaps most notably Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres. Eichel is currently in contract negotiations with the Buffalo Sabres on what would likely be an eight-year extension, even though he’s not a restricted free agent until next summer. Darren Dreger of TSN joined WGR 550 in Buffalo today to talk about the potential contract, and he suggested something that few Buffalo fans wanted to hear.
Dreger believes the comparable for Eichel is still Connor McDavid, who signed an eight-year $100MM extension earlier this summer, and thinks the Buffalo center could get as much as $9.5MM on his new deal. That’s a huge number for a player who was limited by injury last season, and would put him among the top-10 players in the league. It seems like a ridiculous amount, but Eichel does have a higher points-per-game rate than Draisaitl and is already a full-time center. The face of the Sabres’ franchise should have a deal done within the next few weeks, as both sides want to get it done before training camp.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Zemgus Girgensons
One of the last remaining restricted free agents, Zemgus Girgensons has signed with the Buffalo Sabres. The team announced the two-year contract that carries an average annual value of $1.6MM. Girgensons was coming off a one-year, $1.15MM deal and was Buffalo’s last RFA.
Girgensons, 23, still hasn’t been able to fulfill the potential that made him a 14th-overall pick in 2012. The Latvian center has taken steps backwards offensively since his career-high 30-point season in 2014-15, and last year was given just over 13 minutes a night of ice time. With Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel entrenched as the top two options, Girgensons has basically been reduced to a checking option for the team.
Even though he hasn’t turned in much offense, a $3.2MM guarantee is basically no-risk for the Sabres. He’s coming in less than a million dollars over the minimum contract, and does have some redeeming factors. His shot suppression rate as a defensive player has been good, and he’s one of the most physical forwards on the team—especially with Marcus Foligno now in Minnesota.
It will be interesting to see how the team deploys him this season, with Johan Larsson back from a season-ending injury and Jacob Josefson signed as a depth center. Girgensons will be competing with both players for ice time, and that’s if the team keeps Sam Reinhart on the wing all season.
For Buffalo, this leaves them with just under $7MM in cap space to go after some of the NCAA free agents or even perhaps add one of the veteran options still available in free agency. The team should be much improved this year under the guidance of GM Jason Botterill and head coach Phil Housley, as long as they can stay healthy. Last year injuries to almost every key player ruined their season, and they could be in for a big step forward if Jack Eichel suits up for all 82.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Will Butcher To Meet With Buffalo, New Jersey, Vegas
Though he’s not able to actually sign a contract anywhere until tomorrow, Will Butcher has already set up some visits. Mike Chambers of the Denver Post reports that the DU Pioneers’ captain will meet with the Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights among others tomorrow after becoming a free agent. Butcher has been previously linked—however tenuously—to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks.
Butcher has said he won’t rule out Colorado in his free agency, but after being snubbed by the team (and specifically then head coach Patrick Roy) in 2015, still seems like a long shot to end up in Denver. Instead, two of his three teams are obvious choices if he wants to contribute right away. Buffalo and New Jersey both have their eyes set on the playoffs and need huge defensive upgrades if they’re going to get there, and Vegas is looking for core players to build their team around. The 22-year old Butcher will be signing a two-year entry-level deal wherever he signs, though bonus structures can vary.
He and he agent have been clear that immediate opportunity is not the only thing Butcher is looking for, and a winning organization will also be considered, but playing big minutes in your first two years is the only way to get a big raise after your entry-level deal expires. In New Jersey and Buffalo he’d be given that opportunity.
Even though Vegas is the new kid on the block and is probably after any premium free agent, there doesn’t seem to be a great fit there. The Golden Knights already have seven or eight NHL-level left-handed defensemen in their system, and if they can’t move any they’re already in for a roster crunch at the start of the year. Butcher will be waiver exempt when he enters the league and would be the easy choice for them to move to the minors.
Kane Likely Staying In Buffalo For Time Being
- Darren Dreger of TSN reports that trade talk has been quiet over the last few weeks in regards to Buffalo Sabres’ Evander Kane. The veteran forward has been thrown about in trade rumors all offseason. Dreger says that most teams are still interested, but are now likely to wait and see how Kane begins the season in Buffalo. With his track record, many teams may want to see how he handles his offseason. “It sounds like, in the limited research that I’ve done, that he’s worked pretty hard and he’s motivated going into the contract year.” While a in-season trade is very possible, there is also the possibility that both sides will decide to stay together and sign a long-term extension.