Montréal definitely can’t afford that.

Whats the deal with Butcher? Like the first 2 years in the league he seems really good and have good production numbers but recently it seems like he has fallen off. I honestly don't want NJD games so idk what happened but if you can let me know that would be appreciated

Basically, Butcher is always gonna put up points. That’s never been his problem; if u need an offensive dman, he’ll get the job done. Biggest problem with his game is his defensive game which is not great at all. Thing that always stuck out to me is his reach and skating ability. He’s not that big so his reach is limited which contributes to his poor defensive play and while his skating is fairly smooth, he’s not that fast for a modern dman. Is he worth a 4th to take a chance on, on a 1year deal? Absolutely

Butcher was great early in his career but has slowly dipped in production. Ty Smith took his role as the Devils 1LD. This year he was scratched for half of the season, not because he was bad, but the Devils had way too many offensive defensemen. The Devils needed more defensive defensemen. Once we traded Kulikov at the deadline, Butcher came back into the lineup and looked solid. He looked fantastic once Smith got injured and he became the 1LD quarterbacking the power play. But with Ty Smith as our 1LD and having a bunch of LD prospects, Butcher isn't needed and will likely be moved. In my opinion, Butcher can be a top 4 dman on a team that needs an offensive defensemen

Is he effective to QB a the first powerplay or a powerplay in general?

He could do both. On the Devils, Butcher would QB the second power play (because of Smith) but I assume he would effectively QB the Habs first Power play

If Chiarot is picked by Seattle… yes he’d be a good replacement

We’d need a better replacement than Butcher. He isn’t a top 4 D defensively.

Could be a juiced Gustafson

I’m not saying I wouldn’t want him, but if we lost Chiarot we’d need someone who could fill his role, and it definitely wouldn’t be wise to play Butcher 25 minutes a night against tough competition. (Like Chiarot did this year’s playoffs)

If we could get Butcher at 50% retained, then you’d pique my interest. Although that might be better as a deadline move.