| Francois-James Buteau | Rouyn-Noranda Huskies | QMJHL | L | D | 6’4″ | 205 | Cape Breton Eagles | 2020 | Blainville, QC | 2004 | 2022-2023: C+ 2021-2022: C+ |
QMJHL: Rouyn-Noranda vs Baie-Comeau, January 15, 2023: He is a big strong left shot defender with a solid skating base that we feel will allow him to gain speed and agility as he gains body mass through off-ice training. Buteau totaled 18:35 in ice time including 1:35 while shorthanded. He did not play on the power play. he sjowed nice lateral mobility when pinching off line rushes and he finished his opponents with authority when he had the opportunity. We like that he finished with 15 minutes in penalties after getting into a fight and standing up for himself. Buteau was -1 on the night after a miscue on a defensive zone face-off that he was not involved with. He finished with 0 points, 2 shots, 1 hit, received 1 hard hit, 4 giveaways, 4 takeaways and he won 40% of his 10 puck battles.
Neutral Zone NHL: Why a draft pick, he is a 6’4″ left-shot defender who has won 57% of his puck battles during his two seasons in the QMJHL. He added more physicality to his game as his hard body checks rose from 0.51 to 0.91 per game. His minus 28 looks glaring until you realize that six Cape Breton defensemen had worse plus/minus ratings than he did and he played more games than all of them. Why not a draft pick, during 2021/22 he attempted 130 point shots and 49 of them were blocked. In professional hockey that just can’t happen as a defensive specialist.
QMJHL Game recap: Cape Brenton Eagles vs Acadie-Bathurst Titan, March 17, 2022: The reason we liked Buteau’s game was the simple fact that the defenseman had 2 minor penalties for taking runs at Titan players. At 6’4″ we like the fact that Buteau is adding a mean streak to his game. When you combine this with his fight on March 13 versus Sherbrooke we feel that he is beginning to feel comfortable with who he is and how he is going to create space for himself in the future.
U18: Ville de Saguenay: CCM Midget AAA Challenge, February 10, 2020: Francois-James is a big, fairly mobile defenseman who is not afraid to jump into the attack from the opponents blue line. He had a nice open ice hit on a 1v1 zone entry, catching the rushing forward off guard. He is tall and light on his feet and showed some bite down low in his own zone. He has a solid stride for his size with plenty of room for improvement. Shows good poise and handles the puck fairly well. Grade B
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images