Ryan Suter Not Actively Pursuing A Contract

One of the more prominent unrestricted free agent defensemen still on the open market is veteran Ryan Suter.  However, as Pierre LeBrun points out in his latest piece for The Athletic (subscription link), Suter doesn’t appear to be actively pursuing a contract.  While he isn’t ready to say he has retired and would listen to an offer if it came in, he instructed his agent earlier this summer not to call teams to try to drum up a market for his services.

The 40-year-old has been an NHL regular for the past 20 years, suiting up in 1,526 regular season contests over that span, good for 19th all-time.  Even a partial campaign this year could put him in the top 15.  It’s also fair to say that he has logged some heavy minutes over that stretch with an average TOI at over 24 minutes per game, including two seasons with Minnesota where he averaged over 29 minutes a night.

In his prime, Suter was a steady offensive contributor from the back end as well.  He had a stretch of 13 straight seasons with at least 30 points with seven of those seeing him record at least 40.  The end result was 696 points, ranking him 33rd among all-time NHL rearguards.

Last season, Suter was a regular for the Blues after inking a one-year deal worth the league minimum of $775K plus $2.25MM in potential performance bonuses, many of which were simply tied to games played; the structure gave St. Louis some additional short-term cap flexibility.  While he only managed 15 points in 82 games, he still logged over 19 minutes a night while often playing on their top penalty kill pairing.  While he’s a year older now, his performance last season showed that he can still contribute at the NHL level.

At this point, Suter might be better served waiting into the season to sign to see if the right opportunity presents itself, either one with a contender or a chance to play close to home.  Going through the full rigors of an 82-game season may not be the best option so a spot where he can be in more of a depth or reserve role would make sense in theory.  But if that opportunity ultimately doesn’t present itself, it appears that Suter is content with calling it a career if it gets to that point.