The veteran defenseman will have the last year of his contract bought out by the Stars.
The veteran defenseman will have the last year of his contract bought out by the Stars.
After three years with the Dallas Stars, Ryan Suter will have the final year of his contract bought out, saving the team valuable cap space.
With Suter's contract coming off the books, Dallas will save $1.4 million in cap space each of the next two seasons, making room for necessary re-signings and potential free agent additions. Notably, Chris Tanev is a hot commodity on the free agent market after a stellar postseason with the Stars, and Dallas will surely want to do everything they can to keep the defenseman from hitting the open market.
Stars General Manager Jim Nill targeted Suter after the Minnesota Wild bought out the remainder of his contract simultaneously with Zach Parise. Parise just finished a partial season with the Colorado Avalanche and announced his retirement from the league, effective after the Stars eliminated the Avs in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Suter becomes only the second player in NHL history to have his contract bought out two different times, joining Tony DeAngelo on that short list.
The 39-year-old was a stalwart on the backend for Dallas over the past three seasons, initially pairing with top defender Miro Heiskanen for a majority of minutes before taking more of a depth role this season. Suter led the second unit of the power play for a period of time, and logged heavy minutes almost exclusively through the 2023 Western Conference Final against Vegas.
This year, Suter paired with almost everyone at different times, but most notably was the defense partner of Nils Lundkvist during the young defenseman's best period with Dallas. As the playoffs neared, Stars coach Pete DeBoer began rotating Suter in with the top four defenseman and leaving Lundkvist glued to the bench for all but a few shifts per game. This continued through most of the first two rounds of the playoffs, until Alexander Petrovic became Suter's new partner for the remainder of the postseason.
In Suter's final game with the Stars, Game 6 in Edmonton, he and Petrovic were benched for the final 25 minutes of the game, and Suter finished with only 6:16 of ice time. For the first half of the postseason run for Dallas, Suter was playing well and contributing nicely both offensively and defensively for his role. But as the Western Conference Final rolled on, it seemed like Suter had started to lose a step and eventually lost the trust of DeBoer in an elimination game.
Suter's tenure in Dallas was sometimes questioned by fans, who had strong opinions over his play and deployment alongside Heiskanen. But the front office and the team gave nothing but votes of confidence in the aging defenseman, as Nill had previously stated that he didn't quite understand any hate that Suter was receiving. Thomas Harley was also quoted as saying that Suter had been the most impactful in the locker room, giving him advice and influencing him on how to be a top defender and a pro's pro.
Suter was good friends with Joe Pavelski, who decided he would not play next season after noticeably hitting the age curve hard this season, a season where he turned 40 years old like Suter would next year. The Stars simply could not wait and see if Suter would face the same issues, and with that, the buyout was clearly the way forward for a general manager who has won back-to-back GM of the Year awards.
Next up for Nill and the Stars is the NHL Draft from The Sphere in Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday, with free agency quickly following on July 1.
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