Defenseman Ryan Suter will enter his 20th season after signing with Blues

After announcing his signing to a one-year deal, the Blues secured the services of veteran defenseman Ryan Suter, who will be playing in his 20th NHL season this fall. A base salary of $775,000 and performance bonuses totaling $2.225 million are included in the arrangement. The team chose not to disclose how the bonus structure was broken down.

After three years with the Mavericks, Suter dropped to 18:56 minutes per game in 2023–24, his lowest total since his rookie year with Nashville in 2005–06. Even though he participated in all 82 games for the third year in a row, the 39-year-old’s point total fell to its lowest since that time. He managed just two goals and fifteen assists. In 19 postseason games, Suter scored four goals, although he played just 17 minutes and fifty seconds each game.

The decline in his play and playing time led the Stars to elect to buy out his contract, which had one year and $3.65 million left. Next season, he will receive compensation from three teams in the Central Division, as he is still being paid by Minnesota for his buyout from 2021. Joining fellow rearguard Tony DeAngelo as the only players in NHL history to be bought out twice, he has an impressive resume.

Among players born in the United States, Suter ranks fifth all-time with 1,444 career NHL appearances. He is now 72 games behind Matt Cullen for second place on that list, but he has a chance to move up if he stays healthy and has a consistent role for St. Louis. In those games, he has scored 681 points while averaging over 24 minutes of playing time each game.

Obviously, Suter’s career trajectory is not represented by those figures. He isn’t ready to be counted on as a back-end anchor just yet, but he could play a supporting role for the Blues behind Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, Colton Parayko, and Justin Faulk. Once they are in place, Scott Perunovich, Tyler Tucker, and newcomer Pierre-Olivier Joseph will all be competing for playing time on the third pairing, with Suter being the fourth.

St. Louis has more than enough cap space to fund his bonuses in full, according to PuckPedia, and the contract’s structure is intriguing. RFA Nikita Alexandrov still needs a new deal, and the team still has more than $7.3 million in salary capacity. If the Blues aren’t going to make the playoffs, lowering his base salary to the league minimum will reduce his daily cap charge, making him a more attractive trade candidate as the trade deadline approaches. Rather than carrying those charges into the next season, St. Louis should be able to cover any of those bonuses on the 2024-25 cap if he stays.