What do you expect from: #4 Will Butcher?

[Weave]

I think he'll be underwhelming.  Not Mezaros bad, but not noteworthy in any real good way either.  I can't recall Lindy making bad choices about defensemen.  Just the opposite is how I remember.

[JohnC]

22 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Colin Miller 2.0.

Paying 6.7 mill for Butcher and Miller.  No wonder the team stinks.

Top paid D right now - Miller and Butcher

Top paid Forwards right now (w Eichel on IR) - Skinner and Okposo (15 mill).

That's nearly 22 mill (38% of our cap) for 4 players no one in the league wants out of our 58 mill in cap spent so far.  No wonder this team stinks.

You are taking a static perspective on a roster that is rapidly being reshuffled with the cap money in the not too distant future differently redistributed, significantly so. In one or two years Miller, Butcher, Eichel and Okposo will be gone. This team is going through a rapid transition where much of the roster is being turned over to younger players who are moving up the ranks. The process  going on can be painful but it is the right approach to take. 

There are problems and there are solutions. The tandem of Butcher and Miller you cite as troublesome will soon be replaced by players such as Power, Samuellson, Johnson and maybe Bryson. With a little more patience I'm confident that you will become less stressed.  

Edited September 16, 2021 by JohnC

[GASabresIUFAN]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

I understand people want you to drop it because "this season was never about winning anyway" but there's nothing wrong with taking issue with the strategy that informs that line of thinking. Like Taro says a lot, it didn't have to be this way. 

Thank you.  I feel like Pacino in Scent of a Women.  There is a right path and a wrong path and for the last decade we inevitably take the wrong path.  I’m arguing the Tank 2.0 is the wrong path to support the youth movement.

Why is this the wrong path? Simple.  We need to give our youth movement the best chance to succeed and Butcher doesn’t help that cause.  He doesn’t bring anything we don’t already have on the roster in Miller, Dahlin and Bryson.  We also have a budget this year of 60 mil.  Butcher is now taking 5% of that budget money that should have been allocated to goaltending instead of a redundant player.  Hagg and Pysyk make some sense because they are more in zone oriented players and Pysyk is a RHD which we needed.  They are also cheap.  

The argument that we got a 5th rd pick to take him and hope to get another pick  at the deadline for a skill set we didn’t need doesn’t move the needle for me, especially when I don’t think we have the personnel to bring out his best play. 

To me Butcher is just a symptom of the bigger problem with this organization.  We have no idea how to build a roster and place our core players in a position to succeed.  

[dudacek]

Vogl Tweeted that Butcher pulled Granato aside and asked to play him in as many exhibition games as possible.

He got 28(!) minutes against Cbus.

This Hoppe article paints a picture of a highly motivated guy.

https://www.buffalohockeybeat.com/sabres-will-butcher-has-special-chance-to-reignite-sputtering-career/

I don't recall seeing a lot of Butcher tire-pumping in the Jackets game-day thread, but Donnie apparently loved what he saw:

“We had other experienced players – (Anders Bjork), Vinnie Hinostroza and (Zemgus) Girgensons – using that game as a gauge,” said Granato, whose Sabres play a road game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. “I could see those guys aren’t close to where they can be in another three days, a week or a month. Yet, Will was making plays as if he was already in midseason form.”