Bruins president Cam Neely was upfront about one of the areas the team needs to address this offseason. “That elusive left D we’ve been looking for,” he said a month ago, shortly after Boston had been eliminated by the New York Islanders.
Well, a big-name left-shot defenseman that no one expected to be available just became available. The Minnesota Wild announced on Tuesday that they are buying out the final four years of the contracts of both Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.
Suter and Parise, signed by the Wild to identical 13-year contracts on the same day nine years ago, will now become unrestricted free agents and will continue to be paid by Minnesota with their remaining salary spread out over the next eight years.
We will touch on Parise towards the bottom of this post. He could be worth a look as a veteran depth forward.
But let’s focus on Suter, the more surprising of the buyouts and the one who would more obviously fill a need for the Bruins.
Suter is 36 years old. The fact that he just got bought out might make you think he’s washed-up, but that’s not really the case. The Wild had expansion draft issues that almost certainly played a role here, as Suter and Parise both would have had to waive no-movement clauses to be exposed.
True, Suter is no longer the player he was in his prime, when he was playing 28-29 minutes per game and finishing in the top 10 in Norris Trophy voting every year.
But he’s still a pretty effective player, and he still played 22 minutes per game last season and 24 the year before. He had 19 points (3 goals, 16 assists) in 56 games this season, and was still up at 48 in 69 games just one year earlier.
Here is the breakdown of Suter’s game from the always-excellent @JFreshHockey:
In his comments last month, Neely added this about the kind of defenseman he wanted the Bruins to find: “More of a shutdown, some puck movement, some offensive acumen.”
Suter isn’t really a true shutdown defenseman anymore, as that analytics card makes clear. So, he doesn’t really check all of Neely’s boxes. But puck movement and offensive acumen? Suter can still give you that.
And that @JFreshHockey note about “carried defensively by his partners in recent years?” Well, Charlie McAvoy is as good a defender as there is in the NHL right now, and Brandon Carlo is pretty darn good defensively too. Suter with either of them could be a great pairing.
Suter also has good size (6-foot-1, 208 pounds) and has really only suffered one serious injury in his 16-year career (two broken bones in his ankle in 2018). He has missed a grand total of 12 games in the last 10 years. With the Bruins suffering one injury after another on the blue line this season, you’d probably feel better about Suter’s ability to stay healthy than most, despite his age. More veteran leadership is never a bad thing, either.
So, the question is: What kind of contract will Suter be looking for? The simple answer is, we don’t know. This all just happened, Suter himself hasn’t spoken publicly yet, and there haven’t yet been any follow-up reports on his upcoming free agency.
That said, you would think Suter will be looking to go to a contender given that he has never won a Stanley Cup. You’d also think he might not necessarily be seeking top dollar given that A) not many contenders have a lot of cap space, and B) he’s still getting paid by the Wild in addition to his new team. You can cross off the Oilers, who aren't really a contender anyways and who just traded for an older and worse Duncan Keith.
The Bruins do have cap space -- around $30 million right now; a few million less than that once they sign Carlo, a restricted free agent. If they wanted to go after Suter, they would be in a good position to do so.
OK, finally, what about Parise? The 36-year-old left wing’s offense and playing time really dropped off this season, as he finished with seven goals and 11 assists in 45 games while playing just 13:57 per game. He was a healthy scratch several times, including for a couple playoff games. He has also really struggled defensively in recent years.
Here is his @JFreshHockey player card:
So, not great, but definitely not useless. There’s still quite a bit of offensive value there, especially if you think his finishing ability can bounce back. Parise should be much cheaper than Suter and could end up being decent value for someone, as long as you know you’re getting a third- or fourth-liner and aren’t expecting him to be more than that.
Notably, from the Bruins’ perspective, Parise and Charlie Coyle played together in Minnesota for seven years, including on the same line quite a bit. That’s not to say there’s some sort of magical chemistry they’d recapture that would make the Bruins’ third line great, but it’s worth noting.
Related
