Bobby Butler Re-Signs With Senators

As one of Ottawa’s few remaining RFAs, it was only a matter of time before Bobby Butler joined the likes of Zach Smith, Colin Greening and Erik Condra and inked a one-way contract of his own.

I’m rehashing a bit here but Butler’s contract negotiations were never really in question. Bryan Murray had already quelled any concerns by stating that if the Senators and Butler could not agree on the terms of a negotiated extension, Butler would accept the team’s qualifying offer.

So here we are…

The Senators have announced that the 24-year old Butler has agreed to a 2-year, one-way contract and he’ll likely be given every opportunity to play alongside Jason Spezza on the team’s first line. In 36 games for the Senators last year, Butler had some offensive success putting up 11 goals and 10 assists.

There’s no question that Butler has a NHL-release but he needs to take advantage of it. The problem with Butler is that, unlike some of the aforementioned forwards who’ve graduated from Binghamton, if Butler isn’t contributing offensively, he’s not contributing in other facets of the game.

With a +/- of -16 in those 36 games played, Butler was well on pace to eclipse Nick Foligno and Daniel Alfredsson for the worst mark (-19) on the team amongst forwards. (Note: keep in mind that Butler played the bulk of his games towards the end of the season when the team was actually winning games and getting good goaltending. With a per game pace of -0.444, had Butler played a full 82-game schedule, he would have ended up with a -36 rating.)

This two year contract will provide a good window of opportunity for him to prove his worth. By then, other prospects should be biting at his heels and the organization should have some semblance for whether or not they want to move forward with or without him.

Update: 12:36pm

Looking at Butler’s +/-, his actual -16 isn’t as offensive as I was led to believe and is a bit misleading. In his first 8 game sample size (4 games in December and 4 in January during two separate recalls), Butler was a horrifically bad -9. 

That being said, I still maintain that Butler’s play away from the puck needs some refinement.