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According to reports from Danny Picard at Comcast SportsNet, it looks like former Ottawa Senators forward Bobby Butler has found a new team to skate with next season.
Picard suggests that the deal Butler signed with New Jersey is a two-way contract, which makes Lou Lamoriello's most-recent dice-roll far less risky. Butler's one-way deal with the Ottawa Senators handcuffed the organization to consider a buyout with the arrival of young talents in Jakob Silfverberg, Mark Stone, and Mika Zibanejad -- all of whom are looking to grab a roster spot in training camp this season.
The Marlborough, Massachusetts native provided a ton of optimism last season with a ten-goal, eleven-assist run through thirty-six games with Cory Clouston's Ottawa Senators. However, Butler never really found a rhythm in Paul MacLean's system -- an almost bizarre regression, considering how he was (positively) handled.
Ottawa may have been the fourth-best scoring team in the National Hockey League last year, but it really struggled at times to find a complementary winger for Jason Spezza on the first-line. As such, Paul MacLean was extremely liberal in his handling of Bobby Butler, providing him soft and protected minutes with Ottawa's best playmaker quite regularly. Playing with Spezza also meant playing with Karlsson -- the two names on this roster that produced with extreme efficiency last year.
That's what made Butler's drop-off -- sixteen points in just fifty-six games -- so puzzling. The play we saw from him one year ago dissipated, and more often than not, it looked like the Spezza and Karlsson tandem had a ball-and-chain -- not Bobby Butler -- working the ice with them.
The 6th Sens actually pulled some interesting numbers on the effect Erik Karlsson had on Bobby Butler, and conversely, the effect Bobby Butler had on Erik Karlsson. To summarize: Erik Karlsson's WOWY numbers were brilliant both with and without Bobby Butler; Butler was only productive when Karlsson was bringing up the rear, and struggled mightily when his elite puck-mover was resting on the sidelines.
Butler being carried like dead weight around Ottawa's top-six certainly didn't help his chance at grabbing a one-way deal this summer, but New Jersey's well within reason -- especially considering the loss of a talent like Zach Parise -- to attempt a low-risk, high-reward signing here. If New Jersey can insulate Butler properly -- keeping him away from the opposition's best -- he may have a chance to succeed.
It'll be curious to see if the New Jersey coaching staff tries to run Butler with Kovalchuk at any point next year. I maintain Ilya Kovalchuk's one of the most brilliant players in the National Hockey League, but I'm not sure if the Devils are extrapolating maximum efficiency from him if he's forced to carry a player who may not belong inside of the top-six on a game-to-game basis.
Based on this year's empirical evidence, I'd suggest that playing Bobby Butler with New Jersey's best puck-mover(s) remains the priority. Butler's pretty awful away from the puck, but if he's given the biscuit in the right spots on the ice, he can exhibit that strong finishing ability we've seen at every level of competition to date.
Back with more tomorrow.
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