Chris Butler: Credit Where Credit is Due

[dammage79]

All Butler is doing is upping his trade value from a used popsicle stick in return to a fresh bag of popcorn. We arent even close to a seventh round pick yet.

Dont let him fool you...

[thymebalm]

I think he's been playing better of late. Nothing great but less costly mistakes. And this is with increased ice time. I find myself harping on him a lot less when he plays 15 than when he plays 10... almost doesn't make sense.

Nice work from him, once Giordano gets back and We've got a top-6 with him as #6, he'll be awesome.

[Stupid]

ah nm

[genetic_phreek]

wow I'm shocked how many Butler haters there are. I hated his guys 2 years ago. Last year he played a bit better. This year overall he's been better than Brodie yet people still throw the guy under the bus. This thread is justified and I think he's been an asset since Gio went down. The guy is making 1.7/yr folks. He's been skating well, making great outlet passes, and blocks so many shots.

Hatred will always cloud your perception of a players performance. I myself am a fan of Butler now.

[doctajones428]

Butler is a second pairing D-Man, nothing more, nothing less. His recent play has shown he belongs as a #4 defenseman. Not good enough for the first pair, but he definitely improves when you give him some extra minutes.

People had more than enough reason to trash him while he was on the first pairing with Bouwmeester, but for what kind of player he is and what role he now has, I don't understand the hate train

[Itse]

Originally Posted by genetic_phreek

This year overall he's been better than Brodie...

You troll you.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by genetic_phreek

wow I'm shocked how many Butler haters there are. I hated his guys 2 years ago. Last year he played a bit better. This year overall he's been better than Brodie yet people still throw the guy under the bus. This thread is justified and I think he's been an asset since Gio went down. The guy is making 1.7/yr folks. He's been skating well, making great outlet passes, and blocks so many shots.

Hatred will always cloud your perception of a players performance. I myself am a fan of Butler now.

No

[BACKCHECK!!!]

I find it curious that Butler has been such a polarizing player for this team.

Although the split seems to be between a) those that have a grip on reality and see he's a young and cheap depth defender with huge holes in his game but who is also able to play over his head if needed without his play dropping off too badly, and b) those who are driven to shotgun murder/suicide by how terrible he is in every way.

He's a #4-5 guy, and he looks like it, and when you give him first pairing minutes he looks like a #4 guy playing 1st pairing minutes. This is in contrast to, for example, giving SOB first pairing minutes, where a black hole would open from the sheer catastrophic sucking power.

Oh, and

time to trade high

Yeah, because every GM in the league is not only watching our depth defencemen close enough to realize that he has been playing slightly better than normal for like 2 weeks, but would also be completely fooled by this 5 game stretch, and would now be willing to overpay to get Butler.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

In his first year he was Jay Bouwmeesters D partner, he was third on the entire Flames team in average ice a game and was horribad so I'm not buying your theory.

Butler has been so bad as a Flame that his play over these last five games does deserve some recognition. I am probably the biggest Butler hater on this board but even I can look past my hate and give him some props. If you don't want to acknowledge that and continue your hate so be it, I understand he has been crap in a Flames uniform and your hate towards him is not lost on me.

I think people are confused by what Butler hate is. I'm a realistic when it comes to him, I really don't care one way or the other about him. He's not good, not really worth having on the team, but I also don't have any desire to see him burned at the stake. I just don't care about him as a player.

As I said, he's average and is showing why he is considered average, because while he puts up wretched games over and over, he also puts up good ones too.

I don't care much for people disregarding an opinion as "Butler hate." He's just an average, run-of-the-mill player who has a near meaningless affect on a season. But hey, let's celebrate 5 games of average player because it's better than 5 games of giveaways. Whatever goats your float.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by genetic_phreek

wow I'm shocked how many Butler haters there are. I hated his guys 2 years ago. Last year he played a bit better. This year overall he's been better than Brodie yet people still throw the guy under the bus. This thread is justified and I think he's been an asset since Gio went down. The guy is making 1.7/yr folks. He's been skating well, making great outlet passes, and blocks so many shots.

Hatred will always cloud your perception of a players performance. I myself am a fan of Butler now.

Lol wow. Brodie had a bad stretch of games before the 10 game mark, other than that, he's been Brodie. Lets put Butler against Brodie's matchups and watch the chaos ensue.

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by doctajones428

Butler is a second pairing D-Man, nothing more, nothing less. His recent play has shown he belongs as a #4 defenseman. Not good enough for the first pair, but he definitely improves when you give him some extra minutes.

People had more than enough reason to trash him while he was on the first pairing with Bouwmeester, but for what kind of player he is and what role he now has, I don't understand the hate train

I'm not so sure. I think he plays well when he is not required to handle the puck much. When he was paired with O'Brien neither one could move the puck up the ice so they struggled. When he is paired with Brodie he passes the puck off and he will move it up.

I think he is a 5/6th defenseman who needs to be paired with a puck mover so playing him in a top 4 role is working cause our top 4 is filled with puck movers.

Considering Wideman, Giordano, Brodie, Russell and Smid are our d core for the foreseeable future I don't see a future for Butler here for next season unless we can offload O'Brien since you'd figure one of the top7 spots will likely be earned by a youngster soon...

Giordano
Wideman
Brodie
Russell
Smid
Butler
O'Brien
Breen
Cundari
Sieloff
Wotherspoon
Ramage
Billins

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by nik-

Lol wow. Brodie had a bad stretch of games before the 10 game mark, other than that, he's been Brodie. Lets put Butler against Brodie's matchups and watch the chaos ensue.

Butler played top paring with Bouwmeester for an entire season where the team was in playoff contention right down to the last few weeks. This is the first season that Brodie hasn't had sheltered minutes and he's been okay but at times you can see he struggles. It's work in progress and that's not a bad thing as this is kind of a throw away season so seeing him struggle this season isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as he improves and isn't making the same mistakes next season. He's been far from the Flames best defenseman this season though as IMO Russell, Wideman, and Giordano have all been better overall.

[killer_carlson]

Playing better lately - best he's ever been as a flame for sure.

Still not a solution long term.

Trade him while his value is peaking.

[BigBrodieFan]

I think Butler was sandbagging all along, and CP has been hustled. He was just waiting for the right partner to show off his slick moves. Reminds me of a similar story....

[Red Slinger]

Butler reminds me a little bit of Stajan even though they play different positions. He seems to be finding his way and the things that work and don't work for him. Once he plays to his strengths and it utilized appropriately he can be effective in his role. When he tries to play outside his strengths he gets into trouble. Hopefully he plays his way out of the "CP whipping boy" just like Stajan did.

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

Butler reminds me a little bit of Stajan even though they play different positions. He seems to be finding his way and the things that work and don't work for him. Once he plays to his strengths and it utilized appropriately he can be effective in his role. When he tries to play outside his strengths he gets into trouble. Hopefully he plays his way out of the "CP whipping boy" just like Stajan did.

Stajan and Butler are definitely similar in the sense that they need 20+ minutes a night to look decent, and anything less they play awful.

We should lose them both

[Bertuzzied]

Fool me thrice....

[strombad]

No worries everyone! Team worst -4 tonight! Thank goodness he's back!

[Cali Panthers Fan]

You just had to make this thread. Went and jinxed him...

[puckluck2]

Well played csinmyblood well played. Your jinx worked.