NHL Free Agency: The 3 best landing spots for Ryan Suter
These are the three best potential fits for veteran defenseman Ryan Suter in NHL Free Agency.
Both the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft and NHL Entry Draft are in the books, leaving Free Agency as the last marquee event of what has been a wild offseason so far, and Ryan Suter will be one of a number of high-profile players looking for new homes.
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Suter was bought out by the Minnesota Wild, along with forward Zach Parise, earlier this month and he will now be free to sign with any NHL team once Free Agency opens on Wednesday, July 28, and there will be plenty of interested parties.
While he’s not at the peak of his powers anymore and, at the age of 36-years-old he’s closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning of it, Suter will still be a solid piece for a true Stanley Cup contender that needs depth on the backend.
He could be interested in taking a team-friendly deal if he has a legit shot at winning a championship – an opportunity he never really had during his nine years with the Wild – and the veteran will offer teams a lot of quality attributes on and off the ice.
For starters, he had a productive 2020-21 season with 19 points (3 G, 16 A) in 56 regular season games for Minnesota, while he still averaged 22:11 of total ice time per night and that will be a huge selling point for a lot of teams.
Plus, Suter boasts a wealth of experience in the National Hockey League, he’s a respected leader and he plays a hard-nosed game as well as being able to contribute offensively, and elite teams crave a two-way, top-four defenseman.
He’s also a veteran of 1,198 career regular season games in the NHL, in which he has recorded 607 points (93 G, 514 A), in addition to a further 31 points (6 G, 25 A) in 88 Stanley Cup Playoffs games.
Suter is certainly still a legit top-four blueliner in the NHL and he’s going to have a lot of options to consider this week when Free Agency opens, so we mapped out the three best potential destinations for the blueliner…
Three Best Landing Spots for Ryan Suter in NHL Free Agency
3. Colorado Avalanche
After trading Ryan Graves to the New Jersey Devils prior to the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, the Avalanche need a left-shot defenseman to slot into their top four and they could make a real run at Ryan Suter.
Suter could be a perfect fit for the Avs given that he can be dominant at both ends of the ice as a two-way blueliner, and he would be incredibly effective and valuable in Head Coach Jared Bednar’s system.
Not only is the 36-year-old a big-body in his own zone – he dished out 38 hits and blocked 65 hits in 2020-21 – but he can also chip in with offense having put up three goals and 16 assists for 19 points in 56 games last season, which would have been 28 points in an 82-game season.
Not to mention the fact that Suter can slot in on the second power play unit as well as be a shutdown defenseman on the penalty kill, while he’s still capable of eating big minutes on a night-to-night basis.
Plus, with young stud defensemen on the roster in the likes of Cale Makar and Bowen Byram, the Avs would be injecting a wealth of experience and a true leader in the locker room in Suter, who will be a perfect role model for the younger players in the organization.
2. New York Islanders
It is expected that New York Islanders General Manager Lou Lamoriello will make a hard run at forward Zach Parise on Wednesday, a player the three-time Stanley Cup winner drafted and then developed while with the New Jersey Devils in 2003.
But there is also a general consensus that Lamoriello could look to bring Ryan Suter to Long Island too as part of a package deal with his former Minnesota teammate, and it does make a lot of sense.
After all, Suter just screams a typical Lou Lamoriello-type player in that he plays the game the right way, he has a wealth of experience under his belt, he’s incredibly respected in the hockey world and he’s still a dominant top-four defenseman.
It is no secret that the Islanders, under both Lamoriello and Head Coach Barry Trotz, play a defense-first brand of hockey and Suter would be a good fit in that culture in that he’s a team-first player, he’s a big-bodied defenseman who will protect the goalie and make big plays in his own zone and he can also play in all situations.
He averaged 22:11 minutes of total ice time in 2020-21 for the Wild, so that’s another big plus, he’s a shot-blocking machine, he can lay the body on and he averaged 2:00 of short-handed time last season, so he could slot in on the top penalty killing unit for the Isles.
The other huge plus side to Suter is that he’s also very good offensively having recorded 19 points (3 G, 16 A) in 56 games last year, with five of his assists coming on the man advantage so he could man the second power play unit for New York.
Suter would form a deadly one-two punch behind Adam Pelech on the left side of the Islanders’ top-four pairing, he has a relationship with Trotz having played under the Isles Head Coach in Nashville and New York is projected to have around $17 million in cap space to play with, per CapFriendly, so there is scope there for a deal to be done between the two parties.
1. Boston Bruins
Arguably the best fit for Ryan Suter will be with the Boston Bruins, who have the cap space and the role needed to make a deal with the veteran defenseman really work.
Per CapFriendly, the B’s have around $20 million in cap space remaining, even after signing forward Taylor Hall to a four-year, $24 million contract over the weekend, and even with pending UFA’s like David Krejci and Tuukka Rask still to re-sign, there should be enough space to fit in Suter under the cap.
There would be good reason for Suter to take a discount to sign with Boston because, not only is their Stanley Cup window still open, they can also offer the 36-year-old a premier role in the NHL as a No. 1 defenseman.
While they recently re-signed Brandon Carlo to a six-year, $24,600,000 contract, the Bruins crave a legit shutdown defenseman to pair with Charlie McAvoy on the first pairing, a dynamic they have tried to recreate after losing Zdeno Chara in Free Agency last year.
Suter would therefore play top-pairing minutes on a nightly basis, he could slot in on the second power play unit and, in all likelihood, he would be tasked with running the first penalty kill unit for the Bruins.
One of the main motivating factors behind a Boston pursuit of Suter, however, is how they got bullied in their own crease by the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, especially after Carlo went down hurt.
Having Suter would erase that problem given that he’s a big-body at 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds, and he would also give the Bruins the veteran presence on the backend they lacked in 2020-21 in the wake of the departures of both Chara and Torey Krug.
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So, while the Colorado Avalanche and the New York Islanders would both be good destinations for Ryan Suter, there is no doubt that the Boston Bruins would represent the best and most logical fit for the three-time All-Star.