Not saying that Butler is the offense that we need, but Butler's numbers in the AHL are better than Latta, Watson and Mueller. Only Beck's season this year is better than any of Butler's.
I think that speaks to the poor quality of our prospects rather than how good Butler is.
Albany was also one of the worst AHL teams to start the season. Butler's numbers look even more impressive when you eliminate the first 2-3 weeks when the entire team was awful. He outplayed Adam Henrique, Jacob Josefson, and Mattias Tedenby when he was down there.
As far his "play tailing off with the Devils," I don't buy it. Others have brought up the issue with lines, but the other issue is that he was playing poorly when NO Devil was playing well. Saying his play tailed off is unfair when the entire team wasn't able to put the puck in the net.
I'm hoping he gets a fair shot to produce some offense because he has it. Besides his offense, he's a dog on the forecheck and good in his own end. His track record certainly works against him, but don't hold his struggles with NJ very highly because he hasn't done anything worse than any other Devil for the past two weeks.