Will Butcher’s working day was actually already over, but at 10:30 p.m. there was still a little extra shift waiting for him. One he gladly accepted. The new defender of EHC Red Bull Munich took his two small children by the hand and led them directly to the ice surface of the SAP Gardens. Just as they had wished. He then briefly handed it over to his wife as his first interview as an EHC player was waiting for him. And once that was over, he had to continue his little family tour: the children really wanted to go to their dad’s cabin too.
Butcher’s first game in the EHC jersey was one of the spectacular sort. In the Bavarian derby against the Nuremberg Ice Tigers, which the Munich team could have lost despite a 2-0 lead and should have won in the final minutes with full offensive pressure and double superiority, they lost 3-4 after extra time on Thursday evening. It was the first defeat after three wins in a row in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). Defender Butcher played in his debut game alongside Maximilian Daubner and Les Lancaster. He made his first conspicuous appearance in the 13th minute, directly after Munich’s 1-0 win by Yasin Ehliz: The 29-year-old determinedly accompanied a counterattack and appeared dangerously centrally in front of Ice Tigers goalkeeper Niklas Treutle. His promising shot attempt was neutralized at the last second by a Nuremberg stick.
The fact that his offensive skills flashed so quickly was not surprising given his resume. From 2017 to 2019, he collected an impressive 74 scorer points for a defenseman in two NHL seasons, 65 of which were assists. EHC coach Max Kaltenhauser said he wasn’t one to just talk about statistics, “but if someone has this output in the NHL, then he will certainly have tools that will help us.” Regarding his successful NHL times, Butcher pointed out: that he is not the fastest or biggest on the ice, but thinks quickly about the game: “I use my brain to be quick, to anticipate game actions.” Even today, a few years later, his style of speech remains the same. His “number one asset” is his brain, he said on Thursday. He sees himself as a “playmaker,” and as such “good teams usually score points.”
The transfer of national defender Fabio Wagner from ERC Ingolstadt for the coming season is fixed
However, his offensive numbers have declined significantly in recent seasons. He played his last NHL game in the 2021/22 season, then played for three AHL clubs in two seasons and finally ended up in the Kazakh capital Astana this season. And there, in the Russian-dominated KHL, things got strange. Even before he could bring his family to Astana, his time there was over again after just 15 games in October: the club terminated the contracts of all foreign players in exchange for severance pay. Butcher returned to his hometown of Wisconsin (USA), trained there with his former junior team – and then reached an agreement with the Munich team. Although he described his experiences in Astana as the “craziest” of his career, he seemed deeply relaxed when he talked about it. “Luckily, I already had a great career,” he said. A career that has earned him more than $13 million in his five NHL years alone.
Against Nuremberg he got almost 17 minutes of ice time. However, his playing time is likely to increase in the future if you listen carefully to Kaltenhauser’s words. Since he hasn’t played for a long time, they have to give him a few games “so that he can get the full number of minutes,” said the EHC coach after Butcher’s debut. Then “he will certainly strengthen our numerical superiority game,” emphasized Kaltenhauser, who describes Butcher as “nimble and clever.” Butcher’s presence also increases the competition at the EHC; Dominik Bittner had to sit out against Nuremberg. This will be even bigger in the future: According to SZ information, the transfer of national defender Fabio Wagner (ERC Ingolstadt) is fixed for the coming season.
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