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.