Devils Bobby Butler AHL player of the week

[DevilishWon]

Devils' Bobby Butler named AHL Player of the Week | NJ.com

6 points in 3 games!

 

[MCDevils]

I really hope this kid can make a nice contribution. Could really use some help to boot the 3rd Line. You basically have Elias, Zajac, Kovy, Clarkson, Henrique and Zubrus locked into the top 6.

The bottom 3 (bernier, Gionta, Carter) aka the "Playoff Super Line" are also pretty much set.

That leaves a huge amount of uncertainty for the 3rd line, which as we saw from our success last season is very, very important.

Likely 3rd Line Players in order of liklihood IMO:

JJ
Sykora
Butler
Tedenby
Potential Free Agent.

Everyone under here is basically equally unlikely
Joe Whitney (He's still young and a bit of an unknown, but he's really, really small.)
Zharkov he's oversees playing, who knows if he comes back. Had his shot, already missed out quite a bit. Who knows.

 

[MCDevils]

Assuming we play there's still quite a few guys who would be nice 3rd line pieces.

Personally, I'd like to see Sykora and another veteran UFA added. You don't want to put all hope for the season on a 40 year old and 3 very young players.

NHL Free Agents

 

[KennyBanyeah]

The problem with Butler has always been that he's not really a bottom 6 forward option. If he's not scoring he's pretty much hurting your team. He lacks strength, speed and defensive ability at the NHL level.

Hopefully the guy can improve on some of these things (he seems like a good guy) but at age 25 I'm not sure he's ever gonna change.

 

[MCDevils]

The problem with Butler has always been that he's not really a bottom 6 forward option. If he's not scoring he's pretty much hurting your team. He lacks strength, speed and defensive ability at the NHL level.

Hopefully the guy can improve on some of these things (he seems like a good guy) but at age 25 I'm not sure he's ever gonna change.

Since I'm sure that you've seen him play more than most of us, do you think that his defensive inadequacies can be covered by excellent two-way linemates? We happen to have 3 tremendous two-way forwards already in the top-6, so maybe he gets paired wit Travis and Elias, who are quite capable of filling in defensively. Especially Zajac. I'm sure Lou is hoping that he can help replace some of the Sykora offense from last season, without burning out at the end of the season.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

Kids looking good making a lot of progress and breaking some records

 

[MCDevils]

This is a kid that can hopefully jump right in and contribute. Had another goal yesterday in Albany's 4-1 win. Teds had a couple pts, same with Gionta.