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There are are a lot of suitors for 2017 Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher -- and rightfully so.

The smart, puck-moving defenseman put up 37 points in 43 games last season while serving as Captain at the University of Denver.

He's not a Grade A prospect, but he's a good one and is very attractive considering all it'd take is a contract slot to bring him in.

With so many interested parties, it seemed like the Devils -- a retooling team in an extremely difficult division -- would be somewhat of a long shot but they're in the mix, according to Butcher's former coach Jim Montgomery.

Excerpt via NJ.com:

The Devils are among several teams that reached out to Butcher, and they could be one of the teams the defenseman considers.

"I think the Devils are high on that list," Montgomery said. "I don't know for sure, but from what I've been hearing, they're a team that's definitely in that mix."

The Devils could offer Butcher a clearer path to the NHL than most teams -- they need help now and don't have many promising defense prospects on the way -- and they do have a nice stable of young forwards Butcher could feed pucks to for the foreseeable future.

That's attractive to Butcher, no doubt, and is probably why the Devils appear to be a realistic destination for the 22-year-old.

The hype train is a little excessive -- that tends to happen with most notable college free agents -- but he'd still be a nice piece to acquire, especially given the (non-existent) cost.

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