Hobey Baker winner, NHL All-Rookie d-man signs in KHL

American defenseman Will Butcher, 29, has signed a one-year contract with Barys Astana, the Kazakhstan-based KHL club announced on Thursday.

Butcher was a fifth-round draft choice of the Colorado Avalanche in 2013 and then went on to play the next four seasons at the nearby University of Denver Pioneers, where he won the Hobey Baker Award as NCAA men’s ice hockey MVP in 2016-17 – a year in which he had 37 points in 43 games as a d-man and captained the Pioneers to the NCAA championship.

The following season with the New Jersey Devils, Butcher had 44 points in 81 NHL regular-season games and then four points in five playoff games and was named to the league’s All-Rookie Team. That season, he played for the USA at the IIHF World Championship and earned a bronze medal.

However, Butcher’s production declined in each of the next four seasons and he was out of the league by 2022. Overall, he had 114 points in 275 NHL games. He’s spent the past two seasons in the AHL with the Texas Stars, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Iowa Wild.

This will be Butcher’s first tour of duty overseas. In Astana, Butcher will join another former NHL defenseman in Nathan Beaulieu.