Will the Colorado Avalanche miss out on signing college hockey's reigning national player of the year? It sounds like a possibility, according to Terry Frei of the Denver Post.
Will Butcher, the University of Denver senior defenseman who last week won the 2017 Hobey Baker Award and a national championship with the Pioneers, told Frei he "didn't want an offer yet."
"I wanted to sit with him (Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic), talk with him about my year, what they’re thinking, what their philosophy is going to be," Butcher said. "My parents are coming in this weekend for the banquet, and I want to talk to my parents before they offer me anything.”
Sakic, whose Avalanche were the worst NHL team by a mile in 2016-17, expressed interest in signing Butcher earlier this month to the Denver Post. As Frei notes — "a year ago, the Avalanche told Butcher’s 'family adviser' the team was not interested in signing the 5-foot-10, 190-pound defenseman at any point — that was a shift in tone with what the team said in 2016.
"He came in and gave me his whole spiel about changes in the program, going younger and everything like that," Butcher told the Denver Post. "I told him I’d get back in touch with him."
OK then.
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