Bobby Butler
Butler with the Albany Devils
Born (1987-04-26) April 26, 1987
Marlborough, Massachusetts, U.S.
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 189 lb (86 kg; 13 st 7 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shoots Right
ECHL team
Former teams		 Worcester Railers
Ottawa Senators
New Jersey Devils
Nashville Predators
Florida Panthers
Modo Hockey
Medveščak Zagreb
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
National team  United States
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 2010–2019
2022–present

Robert "Bobby" Butler (born April 26, 1987) is an American professional ice hockey forward. He is currently playing with the Worcester Railers in the ECHL. He formerly played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers and won the 2011 Calder Cup championship while with the Binghamton Senators.

Playing career

Amateur

As a youth, Butler played in the 2000 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Minuteman Flames minor ice hockey team, and then in the 2001 tournament with the Middlesex Islanders.[1]

Prior to enrolling at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Butler played three seasons with the Boston Jr. Bruins of the Eastern Junior Hockey League from 2003–2006 and five seasons with Marlborough High School from 2000–2005, making the varsity team as an eighth-grader. During the 2004–05 season, he helped both his high school team and junior team to championship titles. At Marlborough High School (MHS), Butler recorded 284 points in 116 games as well as breaking the school's record in goals scored during his junior year, tallying 58 goals in 25 games. While at MHS, he played for his father, who coached the team for 25 years, retiring in 2011. Butler's MHS hockey point totals are celebrated in a prominent banner at the Navin Rink in Marlborough, which celebrates former MHS players that accumulated more than 100 points during their high school careers.

Butler capped a standout four-year college career by being named the New Hampshire Wildcats' co-captain and finishing second among all NCAA Division I players in goals in 2009 – 10, scoring 29 for UNH, earning him a nomination as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the top U.S. college hockey player.[2]

Butler at the 2013 AHL All-Star Game.

The Wildcats went 87–49–17 with him in the lineup and also qualified for the NCAA Tournament all four seasons that he was enrolled at the school. On March 24, 2010, Butler was recognized as the 58th recipient of the Walter Brown Award, which is presented annually to the best American-born college hockey player in New England. He was also selected as Hockey East's Player of the Year, an All-Hockey East First Team honoree, the Hockey East Player of the month for November, the Hockey East scoring champion, a Hockey East Three Stars Award winner and a 2010 Hockey Humanitarian nominee for his efforts in the community.[3] He recorded 61 goals, 60 assists and 88 penalty minutes over his four-year, 153-game collegiate career at New Hampshire.

Professional

On March 29, 2010, he signed a two-year contract with the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League. He made his NHL debut with Ottawa on April 1 in a 4–3 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes.[4] After attending the 2010 training camp, Butler was assigned to the Binghamton Senators.

Butler scored his first NHL goal against Nikolai Khabibulin of the Edmonton Oilers on February 12, 2011, and recorded his first assist in the same game, on a goal by Milan Michálek. After spending the remainder of the season in Ottawa and recording 10 goals and 11 assists in 36 games, he was returned to Binghamton where he helped lead the club to a Calder Cup victory, notching 13 goals and 7 assists during the 23 game playoff.

On July 14, 2011, he was rewarded for his solid 2010–11 season with a two-year, one-way contract with the Ottawa Senators. However, Butler responded with a much poorer 2011–12 season than expected, registering only 6 goals and 16 points in 56 games. As a result, in July 2012 the Senators placed Butler on waivers with the intent of buying out his contract.[5] On July 27, 2012, the Senators announced that his contract had been bought out, making Butler a free agent.[6]

On August 9, 2012, Butler signed a one-year, two-way contract with the New Jersey Devils organization.[7] With the 2012 NHL lockout in effect, he was directly assigned to AHL affiliate, the Albany Devils. Upon commencement of the shortened 2012–13 season, Butler was recalled to New Jersey and made his Devils debut against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on February 3, 2013. Butler scored his only goal with the Devils against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 9. After registering 2 points in 14 games with the Devils Butler was placed on waivers by the Devils and claimed by the Nashville Predators on March 4, 2013.[8]

On June 14, 2013 he was traded to the Florida Panthers in exchange for T.J. Brennan.[9]

On July 15, 2015, Butler signed his first contract abroad in agreeing to a two-year contract with Swedish club, Modo Hockey of the SHL.[10] However, he parted ways with Modo after one year and then headed to Medveščak Zagreb of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), where he started the 2016-17 campaign. In December 2016, after having played in 37 games (six goals, ten assists) for Zagreb, he transferred to fellow KHL outfit Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.[11]

As a free agent in the following off-season, Butler returned to North America and opted to sign a one-year AHL contract with the Milwaukee Admirals on August 10, 2017.[12] In the 2017–18 season, Butler led the Admirals with 24 goals and finished second with 45 points through 62 games.

He continued his career in the AHL following the conclusion of the season, signing a one-year contract with the Hartford Wolf Pack, affiliate of the New York Rangers, on July 2, 2018.[13]

During his coaching tenure, Butler opted to return to the professional circuit, initially playing a one off appearance with the Worcester Railers of the ECHL on January 2, 2022, earning first-star honours with three points in a 5-3 victory over the Reading Royals. On January 21, 2022, Butler opted to sign a contract for the remainder of the season with the Railers, finishing with 16 points through 20 games.[14]

Coaching career

While in his final two seasons within the AHL, Butler transitioned to coaching in originally performing as the Director of player development with the Boston Junior Bruins from 2017–2019. He ceased his professional career from 2019–2022, performing as the Director of Hockey Operations for the Worcester Jr. Railers and as a NCAA volunteer assistant coach with the Holy Cross.

International play

Medal record
Ice hockey
Representing the  United States
Ice Hockey World Championships
Bronze medal – third place2013 Sweden/Finland

Butler represented Team USA in the 2013 World Championship with three goals and one assist for four points to help Team USA win the bronze medal.

On January 1, 2018, it was announced that Butler would represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[15] He went scoreless over 5 games as Team USA finished in 7th place.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2002–03 Boston Little Bruins 18U AAA 35 21 27 48 12 — — — — —
2002–03 Boston Jr. Bruins EJHL 13 1 3 4 0 — — — — —
2003–04 Boston Little Bruins 18U AAA 7 4 6 10 4 — — — — —
2003–04 Boston Jr. Bruins EJHL 59 15 18 33 28 — — — — —
2004–05 Boston Jr. Bruins EJHL 49 18 14 32 36 — — — — —
2005–06 Boston Jr. Bruins EJHL 44 22 22 44 42 4 2 2 4 8
2006–07 University of New Hampshire HE 38 9 3 12 12 — — — — —
2007–08 University of New Hampshire HE 38 14 12 26 20 — — — — —
2008–09 University of New Hampshire HE 38 9 21 30 36 — — — — —
2009–10 University of New Hampshire HE 39 29 24 53 20 — — — — —
2009–10 Ottawa Senators NHL 2 0 0 0 0 — — — — —
2010–11 Binghamton Senators AHL 47 22 11 33 35 23 13 4 17 6
2010–11 Ottawa Senators NHL 36 10 11 21 10 — — — — —
2011–12 Ottawa Senators NHL 56 6 10 16 12 3 0 0 0 0
2012–13 Albany Devils AHL 37 16 11 27 8 — — — — —
2012–13 New Jersey Devils NHL 14 1 1 2 0 — — — — —
2012–13 Nashville Predators NHL 20 3 6 9 4 — — — — —
2013–14 San Antonio Rampage AHL 69 22 25 47 12 — — — — —
2013–14 Florida Panthers NHL 2 0 1 1 2 — — — — —
2014–15 San Antonio Rampage AHL 68 27 32 59 37 — — — — —
2015–16 Modo Hockey SHL 49 10 9 19 16 — — — — —
2016–17 KHL Medveščak Zagreb KHL 37 6 10 16 10 — — — — —
2016–17 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod KHL 13 1 4 5 4 2 0 0 0 4
2017–18 Milwaukee Admirals AHL 67 24 21 45 36 — — — — —
2018–19 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 69 8 12 20 20 — — — — —
2021–22 Worcester Railers ECHL 20 6 10 16 4 — — — — —
2022–23 Worcester Railers ECHL 63 17 21 38 50 — — — — —
NHL totals 130 20 29 49 28 3 0 0 0 0

International

Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2013 United States WC 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 8 3 1 4 2
2018 United States OG 7th 5 0 0 0 0
Senior totals 13 3 1 4 2

Awards and honors

Award Year
College
HE All-Tournament Team 2008 [16]
All-HE First Team 2009–10
AHCA East First-Team All-American 2009–10 [17]
Finalist Hobey Baker Award 2010
AHL
MVP All-Star Classic 2011 [18]

References

  1. ↑ "Pee-Wee players who have reached NHL or WHA" (PDF). Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  2. ↑ Love, Noah (March 29, 2010). "Senators sign NCAA standout Butler". NationalPost.com. National Post Inc. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Senators sign forward Bobby Butler". OttawaSenators.com. MarketWire. March 29, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Senators clinch playoff spot with shootout win". Sports Illustrated. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  5. ↑ "Sens place Butler on waivers". Canoe.ca. 2012-07-03. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
  6. ↑ "News Release: Senators buy out the contract of Bobby Butler". NHL.com. July 27, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Devils sign former Senators forward Butler to contract". The Sports Network. 2012-08-09. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  8. ↑ "Devils' Bobby Butler claimed off waivers by Nashville Predators". Nj.com. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  9. ↑ "Predators acquire T.J. Brennan". ESPN.com. June 14, 2013. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Bobby Butler ready for two seasons in Modo" (in Swedish). Modo Hockey. 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  11. ↑ "Transfers on the last day of bidding". khl.ru (in Russian). December 26, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Ad's sign three time All-Star". Milwaukee Admirals. 2017-08-10. Archived from the original on 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  13. ↑ "Pack sign trio of forwards". Hartford Wolf Pack. 2018-07-02. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
  14. ↑ "Worcester Railers re-sign Bobby Butler". Worcester Railers. January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  15. ↑ "2018 U.S. Olympic Team". teamusa.org. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  16. ↑ "2013-14 Hockey East Media Guide". Hockey East. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  17. ↑ "Denver puts 3 on All-American Team". collegehockeynews.com. 2010-04-09. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  18. ↑ "East earns 11–8 win in AHL All-Star Game". American Hockey League. February 1, 2010. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
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