{"id":116023,"date":"2021-07-28T18:44:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T22:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=116023"},"modified":"2021-07-28T18:54:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T22:54:00","slug":"will-butcher-acquired-by-the-buffalo-sabres-via-devils-salary-dump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/07\/28\/will-butcher-acquired-by-the-buffalo-sabres-via-devils-salary-dump\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Butcher Acquired By the Buffalo Sabres Via Devils Salary Dump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres have acquired defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/butchwi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will Butcher<\/a> and a fifth-round pick from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for future considerations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have acquired defenseman Will Butcher and a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft from the New Jersey Devils.<\/p>\n<p>Details: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k6FxeUxVEU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/k6FxeUxVEU<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ksnO7c7G8n\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ksnO7c7G8n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuffaloSabres\/status\/1420495708562628609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Will Butcher Traded to the Buffalo Sabres<\/h2>\n<p>Butcher played on the Devils for four seasons. Originally drafted in the fifth round in 2013, Butcher opted not to sign with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a>, despite the fact they drafted him. Instead, he exercised his right to free agency and signed with New Jersey instead.<\/p>\n<p>In 238 career games with them, the 26-year-old has scored 14 goals and 102 points, 40 of which have come on the powerplay. However, despite his 40-point production in his rookie season, his point-scoring has waned over his short career.<\/p>\n<p>Truth be told, the writing was on the wall for Butcher&#8217;s time with the Devils. During the 2021 trade deadline, there were rumours that he was garnering interest from defensively-light teams like the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/bruins\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Bruins<\/a>. What&#8217;s more, Butcher wasn&#8217;t getting any game time. In 2020-21, the former Denver Pioneer was a healthy scratch often, with head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/ruffli01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lindy Ruff<\/a> clearly not taking a shine to him.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the Devils have cut their losses and handed Butcher along with a draft pick to Buffalo. The move allows them to free up some useable cap space.<\/p>\n<h3>Another Buffalo Signing<\/h3>\n<p>Elsewhere, Sabres general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/adamske01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevyn Adams<\/a> also re-signed unrestricted free-agent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/davidbr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Davidson<\/a> to a one-year contract worth $750,000. Davidson is a left-shot defenceman with 180 career NHL games spanning six years. Although he has only made 28 appearances in the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means Going Forward<\/h2>\n<p>With these most recent additions to next year&#8217;s roster, Buffalo have compiled a bevy of left defencemen; in total, they have six active left-shots and that&#8217;s not even including the number one overall pick from this year&#8217;s entry draft, Owen Power. Building from the backend is hardly a bad idea, but they will likely have to move on from a few of these options eventually.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, New Jersey have freed up just over $3.7 million dollars in cap space by jettisoning Butcher&#8217;s final year. This leaves them with a further $22 million dollars in space to make further moves if they so desire. And at this stage, you shouldn&#8217;t count them out. After signing the best UFA defenceman in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hamildo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dougie Hamilton<\/a>, general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/fitzgto01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Fitzgerald<\/a> looks to be attempting to accelerate the rebuilding process.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"kyQ-SzvqRep5ze60aAWOqA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1192386137\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'kyQ-SzvqRep5ze60aAWOqA',sig:'INAf__-BzsUZqgNv0Av5e2YsXqnvPSHd6ozcJlGhUew=',w:'594px',h:'440px',items:'1192386137',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres have acquired defenceman Will Butcher and a fifth-round pick from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for future considerations. We have acquired defenseman Will Butcher and a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft from the New Jersey Devils. Details: https:\/\/t.co\/k6FxeUxVEU pic.twitter.com\/ksnO7c7G8n &mdash; Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) July 28, 2021 Will Butcher Traded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1733,"featured_media":116039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4547,13,34,4548],"tags":[651,1473],"class_list":["post-116023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-devils","category-news","category-nhl","tag-brandon-davidson","tag-will-butcher"],"modified_by":"Luke Flannigan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}