Pucks and Pitchforks
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5 New Jersey Devils Who Must Put In Extra Work This Offseason

By Nick Villano

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 2: Will Butcher #8 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with the bench after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on February 2, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 2: Will Butcher #8 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with the bench after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on February 2, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Will Butcher

Will Butcher fell off in a major way after an amazing rookie season. Much of that has to do with head coach John Hynes putting him in more defensive situations, and also it has to do with playing much worse teammates. He was tested much more than he was in his rookie season, and he did not step up like we’d hoped.

However, this isn’t something we should terribly worry about. Hundreds of athletes across sports deal with a sophomore slump. Much of it has to do with their respective teams leaning on them a little bit more, testing how far they can take them before they break. Butcher never truly broke, but my goodness did he bend.

Butcher is player 19:16 of ice time every game this season. Last season, he was only asked to play 16:04. Three minutes may not sound like a lot to you or me, but that equates to 228 more minutes in his 76 games this season. He added close to four hours of ice time from his rookie to sophomore season.

Also, he started in the offensive zone more than 71 percent of the time last season. That dropped to 63 percent this year. It’s still a considerable amount of time in the offensive zone, but he’s being protected much less.

This offseason, he needs to work on his power play opportunities, because he’ll need to do much better to hold off Damon Severson and Ty Smith for that number one spot. Also, he has to work on getting back on defense during 2-on-1s. If he can fix these, his slump will be a one-time thing.

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