While there is no agreement yet in place, the good news for fans of the Avalanche who fervently hope University of Denver defenseman and Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher signs with the team is: the two sides are still talking.
Butcher, who starred for the Pioneers team that won the NCAA hockey championship this month, met with Avs general manager Joe Sakic last week, but told him he wanted more time to think things over before entering into any serious talks with the Avs.
As of Wednesday morning, the two sides were still in communication. If Butcher declines any offer from the Avs, the team that drafted him in the fifth round of the 2013 NHL draft, he will become an unrestricted free agent Aug. 15.
More news as it develops…
0 Comments (3 conversations)
I wonder if there is a real upside here? I understand that he is an interesting prospect, but is there a chance he can replace Barrie down the road?
anything is better than barrie
I wonder if there is a real upside here. I understand that he is an interesting prospect, but is there a chance he can replace Barrie down the road?
can we trade his rights before aug 15?
That is a hyperbole, if I have ever seen one.
Explain to me what Barrie brings other than a fuck ton of turnovers and assists, which if we had a semi legit team we wouldn’t need as much production from the back end.
The dudes a turnover machine and has the 2nd worst plus/minus ratio in the league. He constantly gets bitched off the puck and panics and throws the puck into vulnerable spots of the ice when someone applies any amount of pressure on him. Hes always getting stuck behind the opposing teams nets making our actual offensive players have to hold the blue line and force our play-makers to back off the attack. And he puts his defensive partners in the worst position all the time.
Hes not an elite offensive defense-man like Burns, Karlsson, letang or OEL. The fact that people try to justify his defensive woes for his offensive abilities on a team that had the least amount of goals scored as well as most goals against is beyond me. He’d be lucky to get more than 13 minutes a night on just about every team in the league. IMO id rather put a traffic cone out there instead of Barrie, we wouldn’t have to pay the traffic cone shit and it’ll probably have better defensive capabilities then Barrie.
I know Nashville did that with Jimmy Vesey to Buffalo, so I think the same would apply to Butcher
I guess that could be a possibility if Joe doesn’t spend the off season trying to “do veterans favors.”
Bob_W
If he doesn’t sign with the Avs then it is probably because he has decided to see what his value is on the open market. So I doubt if another single team would stand a better chance of signing him beforehand and thus would not trade much in order to start talking to him early.