Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
If anyone earned a seat in last night's game, it was Butler, not Baertschi
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Unfortunately Hartley doesn't really have the luxury of sitting one of current top 4 defensemen. And I'm pretty sure Breen and Smith haven't showed they are better options than Butler. Horrible mistake to be sure but Hartley can't be benching a guy like Butler when Giordano and Wideman are injured. Nobody can say with a straight face that Butler isn't one of our top 6 defensemen right this moment.
Hopefully we get healthy by the trade deadline and have a youngster on D step up and then perhaps we can see Feaster deal Butler at the trade deadline. I'm sure most of the board would be ecstatic about that. Butler certainly isn't a guy we should be building around and I'd be shocked if Burke didn't want to see some more size/strength added to our defense.
Brodie
Giordano
Wideman
Russell (assuming we try and succeed in re-signing him which I think is likely)
Smid
Those are our key guys at the moment moving forward to next year. The rest haven't proven to be the solution IMO. I think all of O'Brien, Butler and Smith are available. Unfortunately I don't know if we can deal a Butler until we get a Sieloff or Breen stepping up and proving they can be an NHLer. Not convinced we'll get that this year. We've got enough puck movers there. A clear lack of size and physical play. Butler and Smith don't really bring anything we lack. Sieloff or Breen potentially could.