DETROIT — Pius Suter has delivered for the Red Wings this season the same efficiency he gave the Blackhawks last season.
Entering Wednesday’s matchup between the two rivals — Suter’s second game against the team that imported him to the NHL, then promptly ditched him — it’s clear how much the Hawks miss having a guy like him.
“I’ve gotten more comfortable,” Suter said Tuesday. “I’ve been playing better. I’m maybe not producing as much [as I’d like] in the stat sheet, but I definitely took a step forward from last year and during this year.”
The 25-year-old Swiss center ranks seventh on the Wings with 19 points in 42 games this year, a scoring pace quite similar to his 27-points-in-55-games line from last year in Chicago.
Ex-Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, hell-bent on shooting for the moon rather than retaining a solid role player, nonetheless shied away from meeting his price tag as a restricted free agent in July.
The Wings swooped in with a two-year offer at $3.25 million per, making him their fourth highest-paid forward, but not before Suter — who’d said in May he wanted to re-sign and was “confident they’ll figure something out” — was shaken by the Hawks’ disinterest.
“You can tell [from the tone of] talks, and with time, you can tell what might be happening,” he said, looking back. “But I didn’t know the NHL that well. I knew the information, but I’d never experienced an offseason. I was, at the end, a little bit surprised.”
In retrospect, the Hawks clearly would’ve been better off giving Suter that raise themselves.
Bowman’s gambles on Henrik Borgstrom — whom trading for required the Hawks to absorb Brett Connolly’s $3.5 million salary cap hit — and Tyler Johnson, with his $5 million cap hit, haven’t paid off. Injury-plagued as they’ve been, all three have combined for just 10 points.
Steady, unheralded Suter, meanwhile, would be a perfect fit as Patrick Kane’s center, just like he was last year. This year, the Hawks haven’t maintained any stability in that spot.
Suter was effective there because he never needed the puck on his stick. Conversely, he’d create open space, drive the net, screen the goalie, find loose pucks and rebounds and then finish at a high rate.
He led the Hawks last season in both expected goals per shot and shot attempt accuracy (judging by the percentage that made it on-goal), statistically demonstrating his efficiency. He’s doing the same thing again now in Detroit: His 0.077 expected goals per shot ranks second among Wings regulars — and would also rank second on the Hawks, behind only MacKenzie Entwistle.
“We can play him with good players because he’s two things,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Tuesday. “One, he’s smart offensively and can help facilitate getting guys the puck in good areas. And two, he’s smart defensively and any issues that he wingers have, he does a good job of making up for it. He’s got both those areas covered. He’s been a real versatile player for us.
“He knows that’s where goals are scored, so he’s very committed to finding ways to be...around the cage. And he’s done a good job of it. That’s where a lot of his goals were scored a year ago; that’s where his goals are scored this year.”
With Hawks interim coach Derek King lamenting just Monday his team’s lack of net-front presence in their loss to the Avalanche, having someone like Suter would be quite helpful.
Instead, Suter will be using his skills on Wednesday to try to beat the Hawks.
“It will be fun to see a few guys,” he said, noting he has kept in touch with Philipp Kurashev in particular. “I’m definitely motivated to play them. It was only one year, but [it was] still a really memorable time. It’ll be fun.”
