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St. Louis Blues sign Chris Butler to two-year, two-way deal

By Patrick Karraker

Apr 9, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) handles the puck as St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Butler (25) defends during the first period at Scottrade Center. The Blues won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 9, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) handles the puck as St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Butler (25) defends during the first period at Scottrade Center. The Blues won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /
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Chris Butler is back for a fourth season with the Blues, and he’s now earned a multi-year deal.

The St. Louis Blues announced on Wednesday that they’ve signed 30-year-old defenseman Chris Butler to a two-year, two-way contract. Butler, a St. Louis native and a former high school teammate of Paul Stastny at Chaminade College Prep, is a veteran of 388 NHL games and has been filling in admirably for the Blues when called upon for several seasons now.

2017-18 will be Butler’s fourth season in the Blues organization, and this will be the first multi-year deal of his Blues career. Over his first three seasons wearing the Blue Note, Butler has played in 39 games, collecting three goals and six assists while posting a plus-6 rating. Butler spent most of the 2014-15 season in the NHL, but has been in the AHL for most of the past two seasons. While playing in 72 games for the AHL Chicago Wolves in 2016-17, Butler had five goals and 21 assists with a spectacular plus-23 rating. He also had two brief stints with the Blues, dressing for the final game of the season and seeing 21:28 of ice time.

The two-way, two-year deal is extremely rare if not unprecedented for a player as experienced as Butler, and him agreeing to one is a major testament for him to play for his hometown Blues, even if it requires him spending most of the year in the AHL. Butler was also named the captain of the Wolves last season–and he’ll presumably be assigned there again this season, even though the Blues now share the Wolves with the Vegas Golden Knights and will be assigning players to several different AHL teams–so he probably feels like he serves a meaningful purpose in the Blues organization.

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Butler will likely be ninth or 10th on the Blues’ defensive depth chart at best to begin the 2017-18 season, as they’ll have their normal group of six plus Petteri Lindbohm, Jordan Schmaltz, and rising prospect Vince Dunn. With that said, Blues GM Doug Armstrong has consistently shown that he doesn’t really care about the organizational totem pole once the regular season is underway, instead opting to promote the player who is performing the best in the AHL and who is most deserving of the call-up when a spot opens up. For that reason, Butler has a solid shot of getting back to the NHL in some capacity next season if he works hard and puts together good results in the minors.

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