For the past week, you’ve probably been hearing a lot of the names Alex Kerfoot, Will Butcher and Blaine Byron — the top of this year’s crop of free agents coming out of the NCAA.
More than a few players have taken this route to the NHL in the past, notably two-time Stanley Cup champion Justin Schultz, who was drafted by Anaheim and later signed by Edmonton. Unlike a player drafted out of the Canadian major junior league, a player who goes the NCAA route has his rights retained by the drafting team for four years, or until they leave school. Should the team and player fail to reach a contract agreement by the deadline (August 15), the player becomes a UFA.
It’s a little different for NCAA players who were never drafted into the NHL as they become UFAs once their final school season ends. Toronto’s Tyler Bozak is an example of this kind of player, and this year Zachary Aston-Reese led the class of those types, signing with Pittsburgh in March.
We could start seeing decisions from these three players soon and on NHL Network Monday night, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman discussed where he believed each of them is in the decision process.
ALEX KERFOOT
Drafted in the fifth round (150th overall) by New Jersey in 2012, Kerfoot played a season with the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express after being selected. He attended and played for Harvard University the past four years.
In each NCAA season his production improved, starting with 14 points in 25 games as a freshman and finishing with 45 points in 36 games as a senior this past season, good enough to be named a Hobey Baker finalist.
On Monday afternoon, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported the Rangers were among the finalists for Kerfoot, which is interesting considering the Rangers also signed Jimmy Vesey out of Harvard last summer. Kerfoot replaced Vesey as captain at Harvard.
“I think he’s going to be one of the first ones to make his decision,” Friedman said. “Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that the Rangers are one of the finalists and I have no reason to doubt what Larry is reporting. I think Vancouver is in there, too, along with maybe another team. I think Kerfoot is going to make his decision probably in the next 24 hours.”
WILL BUTCHER
Perhaps the most talked about unsigned college free agent this summer is Butcher, who won this year’s Hobey Baker.
With 37 points in 43 games, Butcher was the second-highest scoring defenceman across the NCAA in 2016-17, three points behind Adam Fox who was a Calgary Flames third-rounder from 2016.
Standing five foot 10 and weighing 186 pounds, the smallish puck-mover was drafted in the fifth round (123rd overall) by Colorado in 2013 and subsequently attended the University of Denver for the past four years. He, too, saw his point totals rise each season from 16 as a freshman to 37 as a senior. Sportsnet’s Luke Fox gave an excellent rundown last week on who’s in and out of the Butcher sweepstakes.
“Will Butcher … his timeline looks a little longer,” Friedman said. “It was pretty funny last week a fan saw him with a Buffalo Sabres bag at the Colorado airport, but he’s not going to make a decision it looks like for another week.”
And there is a bit of a Sabres connection. Butcher has played internationally with Jack Eichel on a few occasions, notably the 2014 and 2015 World Junior Championship, the latter for which Butcher wore an ‘A’.
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BLAINE BYRON
Originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2013 draft, Byron is a six-foot, 172-pound centre from Ottawa — which could make the Senators an interesting potential landing spot. After he was drafted, Byron went to the University of Maine for four years, jumping from 24 to 41 points from his third to fourth seasons.
Byron has never played on the international stage, but did lead the Black Bears in scoring last season. We could still be waiting a week or two before learning with which team Byron lands.
“I think the Butcher situation, the fact that a lot of teams are close to the 50 contract limit, they’re going to wait and see what happens with Butcher before they probably make their call on Byron,” Friedman said. “They play different positions — Butcher’s a D, Byron’s a centre — but the fact is that you have a limit on how many players you can have. So, I think we might have to wait for Butcher to make his decision until we have a clear picture on Byron.”
