Player Profile: Chris Butler

2010-11 Regular Season stats:

2011 Postseason stats:

Career:

Look Back: Chris Butler struggled to find the lineup for most of the first half of the season. As he gained ice time in the second half of the season, he still did not contribute much offensively.  Butler was a horse in logging long minutes down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs as he paired with Tyler Myers.  His performance against the Flyers however seemed to expose some of the growing pains associated with young defensemen.  He’s just 24 years old and should be able to take that experience and learn from it as he continues to develop.

Look Ahead: Butler is one of the many RFAs the Sabres front office needs to deal with.  The former fourth round pick may be caught in a numbers game as other RFAs like Nathan Gerbe, Andrej Sekera and Mike Weber also need to be prioritized.  With a lot of fan and media sentiment on bringing in veteran defensemen it is likely that one of these young blue liners will struggle to maintain their position on the roster.  The fact that Butler didn’t contribute significantly offensively may be overlooked by the fact that he played alongside Tyler Myers quite extensively during Myers’ second half resurgence.  The team may want to build around them, although that appears unlikely.  We’re fast approaching July 1st.

Fake Darcy’s Take: A steal in the 4th round, I think Butler has a spot on our team for many years, as long as he keeps his salary requests in line with his value.  One of his funnier bits is using the “Pioneer Paddle” on players in the locker room. That’s the value of drafting college players: those funny fraternity pranks.