Joined: Jan. 2018
Posts: 979
Likes: 243
I don't like the idea of Butcher playing top 2 minutes; he struggled last year dealing with a top 4 role compared to 2 years ago when he was playing a sheltered role on the 3rd line with PP time. Also I think if Smith plays well out of camp Butcher almost becomes redundant since they are so similar and Subban, Severson, Vatanen ( if he is still around ), possibly even Smith can quarterback a PP. So I don't think it would be crazy if both Vatanen and Butcher could be gone by the end on the season.
As for the forward group, if Gusev plays well, it is very deep and I have no clue where people end up.