Chris Butler and Paul Byron: The Newest Flames

Chris Butler

So who exactly did the Flames get in return for Robyn Regehr?

Well, Their names are Chris Butler and Paul Byron. Butler is a defenceman who's played a couple seasons in the NHL with the Sabres and Byron is a small forward who played a handful of big league games but has mostly toiled in the minors. Byron can score, as is evident in his stats seen below. I wouldn't call the trade a write off quite yet.

Remember when we traded Theo Fleury to Colorado for some young defenceman named Reggie?



Here are some numbers on both players:





Paul Byron

Paul Byron

Since we are pretty in the dark about these two players, we thought it would be nice to get a Buffalo perspective. So we bring in Joey Pinzone who runs Buffalowins.com, a blog about the Sabres and Bills out of Buffalo. We asked him some questions regarding both Butler and Byron and his thoughts on getting Kotalik dumped on his team.


Who is Chris Butler as a player? Skill set?
Chris Butler was one of those prospects that the Sabres brought up from the minor league system, who had flashes of being a legit player, but was too inconsistent. He's a decent skater, who can carry the puck into the offensive zone, but he's not someone who is going to be a major threat in the offensive zone. He's not going to dish out big hits like Regehr, but he's just your classic, stay-at-home defensemen. His biggest flaws are that he can be worked off the puck rather easily and can be a turnover machine. However, if he puts his skill set together, he can be a formidable force. At best, I think he can be a #4 defensemen. Butler's career can be summed up with the way he preformed in the playoffs against the Flyers. In game 1, which was a 1-0 shutout victory for the Sabres, Butler played out of his mind. He was blocking shots, he was active, he was great on the penalty killing...it was really eye-opening. Then, by game four, he was a complete disaster. That's Butler. I do think a big problem with Butler was that Ruff use to always bench him. He's never played more than 60 games in a season, because Ruff would alternate between him and Andrej Sekera. So, you could make the point that he just didn't get into a groove.

What do you think of getting Kotalik back?
Eh. I'm not exactly thrilled with it. Hell, I didn't even know he was still in the league. Only thing I can say about Kotalik is that it was a classic case of Calgary looking to dump salary. You want Regehr for just B&B? Well, you gotta take Kotalik's 3-million dollar salary. Also Lindy loves Kotalik for some odd reason. He actually picked Kotalik over JP Dumont in 2006. It will be hard for him to make the club, because the Sabres are so deep at wing. I don't know, but I still can't see a 3-million dollar player sitting in the AHL. The best we can hope for with Kotalik is that we buy him out, he gets traded, or he goes back to his 10-15 goal production that he had during his final years in Buffalo. Then again, those seasons added to why we hated him. Prediction: AHL bound.


What about Byron? What can he bring to the table for the Flames?
I'm not exactly fluent when it comes to prospects, but Kris Baker over at Sabres prospects, viewed him as the 13th best prospect in the farm system. Baker describes him as: Speedy, slippery, and possessing an excellent set of hands. Obviously, hockey prospects are a complete crap shoot, as we have no clue whether they will be legit NHL players. He did have a cup of coffee with the parent club for a handful of games and actually played well. Nothing flashy, but he played a safe sound mini-season with the Sabres.
 
Be sure to visit Buffalowins.com for all your Sabres/Bills news and information and see what Buffalo fans think of having Robyn Regehr in the Blue and Yellow.
 
 
Newman
The Rev

Jersey Fouls
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