Will Butcher:
Will Butcher is 24 years old and has a ton of years in front of him. He has a ton of upside to his game. Put this into perspective how rare it is for a defenseman in his rookie year to put up points north of 40 and be positive it the plus/minus category. Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, P.K. Subban, Victor Hedman, and Seth Jones are just some of the names who never reached the feat, and they are now considered some of the best defensemen in the NHL.
When you put Will Butcher in this group of players, he is the only one to have scored 40+ points and be in the positive of the plus/minus, the only one. There’s no argument that Will Butcher is going to become like one of these players, this is just to point out that he is still young and he has already done some great things in this league.
The defenseman role is always evolving and Butcher is the kind of player that will keep getting better. He absolutely regressed last year, but that was because of the team that he was playing with. The Devils were awful last year.
He has the capability of improving his defensive style over the years, but his offensive game is excellent and can offer this team a key option for scoring on the backend. The Devils defense could take massive steps forward this year if everyone can stay healthy. It is certainly worth noting that, as of now, we aren’t sure who Butcher will be paired up with but I think he will be moved around as the year goes to see who he works best with, but that right pairing will have a lot to do with bringing out his best game.