The Blues informed defenseman Ryan Suter they’re not planning to offer him a contract extension before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, general manager Doug Armstrong told reporters Monday (including NHL.com’s Lou Korac).
Suter signed a league-minimum contract with St. Louis with an additional $2.25MM in potential performance bonuses nine days into free agency last year. He was coming off a buyout of the final year of his previous contract with the Stars, who themselves had picked Suter up after they bought out the last four years of his megadeal in 2021. He appeared in all 82 regular-season games for the Blues, earning all of his potential bonuses, scoring two goals and 15 points with a plus-seven rating. That extended his ironman streak, which began in the 2018-19 season, to 535 games, 21st all-time.
The 40-year-old did not play in all of the Blues’ postseason games, perhaps foreshadowing today’s news. He was a healthy scratch twice in their seven-game loss to the Jets in the first round, sitting out Games 3 and 4 in favor of Tyler Tucker. He averaged 19:28 per game in the regular season but saw just 16:54 of ice time per game in his brief playoff appearance, the 16th trip to the postseason of Suter’s 20-year NHL career.
While he proved he can still be a serviceable bottom-pairing piece and was a regular penalty-killer for the Blues, they don’t have the roster space to bring him back with names like Tucker and Matthew Kessel looking for more regular NHL minutes in 2025-26. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Suter, who’s still getting a paycheck of $833K from the Wild and $1.43MM from the Stars next season, to take another league-minimum deal elsewhere instead of retiring. He previously said he didn’t anticipate retiring this summer.