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Butcher Will Have Pressure Elevating NJ PP |
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In four years of college hockey, Will Butcher earned himself quite the reputation. He is a power play QB extraordinaire. His fast hands, quick feet, above average passing and eagle eye vision made him a weapon on the University of Denver blue line.
Butcher's Denver Pioneers head coach, Jim Montgomery, speaks glowingly of Butcher's power play prowess. In fact, Montgomery recently compared his former star pupil to NHL PP QB extraordinaire Andrei Markov, formerly of the Montreal Canadiens. Prior to this summer, Markov patrolled the Montreal PP point for sixteen seasons. How Butcher is a comparable to Markov is lost on me. Butcher played two seasons of college hockey and has zero NHL PP experience. Markov played 990 NHL regular season games, plus 89 additional Stanley Cup playoff games (5 goals, 27 assists). Markov scored a total of 119 goals and 453 points in 990 regular season games played.
Amazingly, Markov scored 60 PP goals and 234 PP assists during his super impressive NHL career. So, 294 of Markov's 572 career points scored were created while he was manning the power play point.
How Butcher compares to Markov, I don't know.
I'll suspend my disbelief and play along.
On Sunday night, Butcher signed a two-year entry level contract to play with the New jersey Devils.
Butcher looked at 2016-17 NHL Power Play and Penalty table before he finalized his decision to play with the Devils.
Right?
Butcher PP QB maven who thrives with the man advantage.
A simply glance of NHL stats would show that New Jersey's division foes are very disciplined teams who pride themselves on staying out of the sin bin.
CAR is the least penalized team in the NHL. NYR 3rd lowest. NYI 6th lowest. PIT 8th lowest. CBJ 9th lowest. WAS 14th lowest penalized team.
Based on his power play proficiency, shouldn't Butcher have signed with the Buffalo Sabres or another Atlantic Division club? The Arlantic is home to some of the least disciplined, most penalized teams in the NHL.
Hey, lookie here.
It says that the Buffalo Sabres were the #1 PP team in the NHL last season. The Devils were ranked #22. Which means that New Jersey was the eighth most penalized team in the NHL.
How will Butcher elevate and improve the Devils' PP when they are always killing penalties while not playing 5v5?
No pressure on Butcher in Newark.
Butcher might want to bone up on playing the penalty kill point.
Right?
On Monday, Butcher spoke with media on a conference call. He said his final four teams were the Devils, Sabres, Golden Knights and Kings.
He said he thinks he is ready to play in the NHL today.
That's debatable.
“Seeing where the young team is going was something that I felt compelled to be a part of,” Butcher, 22, said. On Sunday, Butcher signed a two-year, entry-level contract with a $925K AAV with the opportunity to earn an additional $850,000 in annual bonuses.
“How they want to play in New Jersey kind of reminded of college hockey and coach [Jim] Montgomery a little bit,” Butcher said. “So there’s a comfort in the systems a little bit and seeing the game the same way.”
Butcher said he “hit it off” immediately with Jersey bench boss John Hynes. He also heaped praise on Devils GM Ray Shero for his offseason roster additions, including trading for forward Marcus Johansson from the Capitals, signing free agent energy forward Brian Boyle and selecting center Nico Hischier with the first overall pick at the June NHL Draft.
Butcher will join his Devils prospects and will play against the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins prospects in the annual tourney hosted by the Sabres. Puck drop for Sabres-Devils is September 8 at 7pm.
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Jason Pominville is going back to the future.
Pominville will once again wear his trademark #29 sweater in Buffalo. Defensman Jake McCabe gave up the #29 so that he could rock #19, which he wore at the University of Wisconsin and at Team USA.
What a classy gesture for the young McCabe to give an "O.G." Sabres star his iconic sweater digits back.
I can't get confirmation on it but I hear Pominville will be taking care of McCabe. Perhaps a Rolex watch or an all expenses paid trip to Bora Bora will be landing in McCabe's locker stall in the near future.
Pominville, 34, was traded from the Minnesota Wild back to Buffalo in June along with defenseman Marco Scandella. Pominville played the first nine seasons of his NHL career with the Sabres before he was traded to The Twin Cities at the 2013 trade deadline.
In 905 career games, the Repintigny, Quebec native has scored 261 goals and 401 assists.
In 578 career games with the Sabres, "Pommer" scored 185 gioals and 271 assists for 456 points. In 327 career games with the wild, Pominville scored 76 goals and 130 assists for 206 points.
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I love that Alex Nylander is giving his #19 to McCabe in order to rock his old man's iconic #92 sweater number.
Michael Nylander played 16 seasons in the NHL. He's still known in NHL circkles as "The Swedish Gretzky".
Alex is looking to earn a roster spot at next month's training camp.
Perhaps wearing his papa's digits will be a good luck charm.
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Three Sabres prospects looking for full time gigs in Buffalo this season have also changed their sweater numbers.
Justin Bailey will now rock his birth year #95 sweater number. Bailey wore #95 when he played in "The O" at Kitchener and The Soo.
Nick Baptiste will now wear 313 when he finally earns a Buffalo roster spot.
Hudson Fasching has dropped #52 and will now roll in #24 for the Sabres.
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Marcus Foligno loyalists will not be happy at first that Nathan Beaulieu will now be wearing Moose's #82.
Benoit Pouliot will wear his trademark #67
Recently acquired Russian D Viktor Antipin will don #93
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