The Red Wings’ signing of Pius Suter to a 2-year, $6.5 million deal was an astute signing, and 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield has a bit more about Suter…
In Suter, the Wings are getting a potential piece of their future. He’s a two-way center who played second-line minutes on a Blackhawks team that spent much of last season chasing the playoffs. He flashed his offensive upside with 27 points in 55 games and garnered votes for Rookie of the Year.
5’9 but quick on his skates, Suter figures to assume a second- or third-line center role in Detroit. The Wings needed more depth down the middle after Luke Glendening departed for Dallas in free agency, and Suter fits the timeline of their rebuild. He’s a growing player for a growing team.
As does Dobber Hockey’s Michael Clifford:
In real life, this is a great bet by Detroit. Even with Dylan Larkin, the team is thin at centre. Frans Nielsen is 37 years old and I think they’d rather have Robby Fabbri on the wing. Both Joe Veleno and Michael Rasmussen are potential centres here, but they have to prove something first. At least Suter has two-thirds of a season in, and a good one at that. It gives them the safety of Larkin-Suter at the top and then the younger guys can get in softer minutes down the lineup. And if Suter doesn’t work out, it’s only a two-year deal and they don’t have to worry about his money impacting their young players and available cap space down the road.
Two-thirds of a season isn’t a lot to go off of, but Suter had slightly above-average defensive impacts and that’s pretty good for a rookie on a bad defensive team. Add that to his offensive puck-possession game, and I’m getting the feeling this is a true two-way centre in the making.
Suter seems to have a good transition game and a developing defensive game that is already average. At worst, that seems like a third-line centre, particularly on a rebuilding team. He was good on the power play too, though Chicago did have a lot of talent. Nevertheless, if he can bring some PP spark to a team that needs it, that could be big for them, too. He looks at least like he’ll be a goal-scoring centre, so at worst I think a smaller, slightly worse Jeff Carter. In a full year with 18+ minutes a night, he has 25 goals in his sights and could easily push 30.
The Wings have the help on the, erm, wings, too. They have Fabbri, Bertuzzi, Vrana, Zadina, and maybe even Mason Raymond. There will be talent for Suter to play with both at 5-on-5 and on the power play. I truly believe that if things go right for him this year, he can get 30 goals and 55 points. He won’t bring much peripherals besides some shots, though. Expect less, around 25 goals and 45 points.
Pius Suter is a fine middle six center on a fair deal pic.twitter.com/9HGZDxuTW0— dom at the athletic (@domluszczyszyn) July 28, 2021
Any improvement on Franz is appreciated.