On December 1st, the Minnesota Wild recalled veteran defenseman Andrej Sustr to their NHL roster. Today, the Wild announced that they’ve re-assigned Sustr to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, meaning he’ll head back to the minors without skating in an NHL game.
Sustr, 32, is as mentioned a veteran defenseman who has significant NHL experience on his resume. He broke into the league as an undrafted college free agent on the Tampa Bay Lightning and played a regular role on their 2014-15 team that made a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Sustr would continue in his regular role in Tampa until 2017-18, when he got into just 44 games, leading to him leaving the organization altogether in the offseason. Sustr signed with the Anaheim Ducks, spending most of 2018-19 in the AHL.
That run in the AHL motivated him to look elsewhere to continue his career, leading him to sign with the KHL’s Chinese franchise, the Kunlun Red Star.
After two years in China, Sustr returned to the Lightning organization and split time between Tampa and their AHL affiliate in Syracuse before being claimed off of waivers by, you guessed it, the Ducks.
This offseason, Sustr signed with the Wild and has spent most of the year in the AHL, save for this call-up. Having not played in a single NHL game for the Wild despite spending over a week on their roster, Sustr will head back to Iowa to resume playing an important role on their blueline.
Important role on the Iowa blueline must be a dream come true.
@stan Konit. I have never been close to being good enough to have played in the AHL. I’m guessing you never have either. I’m going to the rink tonight where I pay to play slow old man hockey with a bunch of buddies. Playing at all at the AHL level would be a dream come true for me. I’m glad that you’ve accomplished so much in your life that you can be snarky about guys who are “only” good enough to play in the AHL. My guess is that at 32 Andrej Sustr is still better at hockey than you are at anything. I don’t mean that as a dig. Very few of us are as good at anything as AHL players are at hockey. I’m pretty good at my job. But I’m not as good at it as AHLers are at hockey.