Breakout Star Proving The Canucks Should Have Signed Him When They Had the Chance

[TBone]

Breakout Star Proving the Vancouver Canucks Should Have Signed Him When They Had the Chance

PUBLICATION
Edward Jaxon
August 25, 2025

Some new information has suggested that a former Vancouver Canucks forward will be a perfect addition to his new club heading into the 2025-26 season.

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There are going to be some new faces in training camp, including Evander Kane who was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in June, but there will also be some notable absences too, those who have left the organization for a new opportunity elsewhere in the NHL this summer.

One of those names who left the Vancouver Canucks earlier this summer was Swiss centerman Pius Suter, as he signed a two-year contract worth $4.125 million annually with the St. Louis Blues on the second day of the NHL's free agency period.

Losing Pius Suter could come back to bite the Vancouver Canucks as early as this season, as Patrik Allvin has had a difficult time trying to find some more help down the middle, but for the St. Louis Blues, who were also in the market for a centerman, it looks like it could be a home run signing.

Suter is coming off the best season of his National Hockey League career, registering new highs in goals (25) and points (46), while tying a previous high in assists (21) and as things stand right now, the Zurich native is projected to center St. Louis' third line behind Robert Thomas and captain Brayden Schenn.

https://www.canucksdaily.com/nhl-team/s ... the-chance

[Old_Goat]

Thanks for posting. Maybe not a blockbuster signing, but an excellent one indeed. Good timing as well. One of those solid often underrated moves that good teams make to gain balance & depth in the lineup.

[blues2112]

(Another) good signing by Armstrong.

To be fair, though, Suter is hardly a "star"; and at, 29, hardly a "breakout."

[dhsux]

Thanks for posting. Maybe not a blockbuster signing, but an excellent one indeed. Good timing as well. One of those solid often underrated moves that good teams make to gain balance & depth in the lineup.

Exactly right. It's not a small matter to me I look to this player to shore up the center and really help the Blues compete this year.

[TheJackBurton]

I'm starting to believe the 2nd day signings are far better than first hour signings.

[STL fan in MN]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

[TheJackBurton]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Vancouver is the poster child for what happens when the players run the team. You have Pettersson who pouted until Miller was traded (although based on reports Miller isn't exactly a beloved clubhouse individual) and now you have Hughes already telling you he isn't re-signing there and that he wants to play with his brothers in NJ.

People can (buzz) and moan about Army all they want, but we haven't ever seen dysfunction like that in the Blues locker room.

[DawgDad]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

Hoping Bozak is a good comp, Blues need a 3C glue guy of that ilk. FO dot may not be as strong but he needs to kill penalties, provide top-6 depth, and boost that 3rd line goal scoring.

[STL fan in MN]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Vancouver is the poster child for what happens when the players run the team. You have Pettersson who pouted until Miller was traded (although based on reports Miller isn't exactly a beloved clubhouse individual) and now you have Hughes already telling you he isn't re-signing there and that he wants to play with his brothers in NJ.

People can (A female canine animal, especially a dog) and moan about Army all they want, but we haven't ever seen dysfunction like that in the Blues locker room.

Very true. And it’s not like the potential for dysfunction hasn’t been there. Tarasenko requested a trade and we took nearly a year to honor it. That really could’ve blown up and turned into a big story but it didn’t. Some of the credit for that goes to Tarasenko himself but Army and the org as a whole did a good job of not letting it get out of hand.

Vancouver just has a lot of weirdness going on. Miller sounds like a piece of work but so does Petersson IMO. They’re probably going to have to trade Hughes, they’re the only team in the league without a dedicated practice facility, it’s super expensive there…beautify city but it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of a city or org if I was a player either.

[STL fan in MN]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

Hoping Bozak is a good comp, Blues need a 3C glue guy of that ilk. FO dot may not be as strong but he needs to kill penalties, provide top-6 depth, and boost that 3rd line goal scoring.

Yep, Bozak isn’t a perfect comp simply because he was good at faceoffs and Suter isn’t but in terms of impact to the org, I’m hoping they’ll be similar.

I don’t expect Suter to score 25 goals again but he should score a heck of a lot more than Sunny’s 6!

[BalotelliMassive]

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Yup - dude played on a dying Blackhawk team and then he went to another in Detroit. He should thrive in St. Louis based on having better coaching alone.

[TheJackBurton]

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Yup - dude played on a dying Blackhawk team and then he went to another in Detroit. He should thrive in St. Louis based on having better coaching alone.

Forgot about the Detroit stop. That was a rough one. At least with Chicago he was just entering the league and getting his feet wet.

[lidstrom5]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Vancouver is the poster child for what happens when the players run the team. You have Pettersson who pouted until Miller was traded (although based on reports Miller isn't exactly a beloved clubhouse individual) and now you have Hughes already telling you he isn't re-signing there and that he wants to play with his brothers in NJ.

People can (A female canine animal, especially a dog) and moan about Army all they want, but we haven't ever seen dysfunction like that in the Blues locker room.

If it wasn't for an idiot named Holland Hughes would be in Detroit.

[TheJackBurton]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Vancouver is the poster child for what happens when the players run the team. You have Pettersson who pouted until Miller was traded (although based on reports Miller isn't exactly a beloved clubhouse individual) and now you have Hughes already telling you he isn't re-signing there and that he wants to play with his brothers in NJ.

People can (A female canine animal, especially a dog) and moan about Army all they want, but we haven't ever seen dysfunction like that in the Blues locker room.

Very true. And it’s not like the potential for dysfunction hasn’t been there. Tarasenko requested a trade and we took nearly a year to honor it. That really could’ve blown up and turned into a big story but it didn’t. Some of the credit for that goes to Tarasenko himself but Army and the org as a whole did a good job of not letting it get out of hand.

Vancouver just has a lot of weirdness going on. Miller sounds like a piece of work but so does Petersson IMO. They’re probably going to have to trade Hughes, they’re the only team in the league without a dedicated practice facility, it’s super expensive there…beautify city but it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of a city or org if I was a player either.

Yep, especially after he was left unprotected in the expansion draft. I give Vladi credit for that, not only did he not pout, he went out and had a really fantastic season.

When he didn't get traded in the off season though you could see things started to go south, but to both of their credit they kept it out of the papers and evidently out of the locker room.

Part of that comes with the stability in the front office though and Tom Stillman and Co making sure everyone is aware of who is in charge and who they will back when push comes to shove. With Vancouvers constant revolving door of GM's head coaches and I would imagine some front office personnel its extremely hard to put that message forward.

[bstpete11]

I think Suter is going to be a good player for the Blues, but in no way should a 29 year old 3rd line center with a career high 46 points be referred to as a "breakout star". I'm sure Vancouver wishes they still had him, but I don't think this is going to be a huge regret for them.

[StlFanInVA]

I wasn’t super interested in Suter as I didn’t want to way overpay a guy for having 1 career year. But that was based on the assumption he was going to require something like 4 years at $5M to get him signed. To get him at 2 years at $4.125M is more than fair. Very happy we got him as he adds much needed center depth.

I view this as pretty similar to the Bozak signing years ago. Not a star signing but a very solid player that will play an important role and helps slot others where they need to be. I love Sunny for what he is but at this point in his career, he shouldn’t have been playing 3C.

As for this article, it’s just a Canucks fan blog quoting a Blues fam blog. But that said, I did find it a bit surprising the Canucks couldn’t find a way to keep this guy as they could really use him too. But perhaps all the turmoil in Vancouver made it so Pius was more than open to a new opportunity, idk.

There's a lot to be said for not wanting to be in an organization when the front office is in absolute turmoil.

Vancouver is the poster child for what happens when the players run the team. You have Pettersson who pouted until Miller was traded (although based on reports Miller isn't exactly a beloved clubhouse individual) and now you have Hughes already telling you he isn't re-signing there and that he wants to play with his brothers in NJ.

People can (A female canine animal, especially a dog) and moan about Army all they want, but we haven't ever seen dysfunction like that in the Blues locker room.

I was thinking very similarly and also thought the way the Blues gave Broberg and Holloway a chance to succeed like they did, may also look favorable to other players, on the outside, thinking that they've been under utilized and could excel with the opportunity as well.