With plenty of options, Suter chooses Stars for his best shot at a Cup

The Stars feel they have one of the best groups of defensemen in the NHL.
So does Ryan Suter.

The veteran blueliner who joined Dallas on the first day of free agency Wednesday spoke via Zoom to the media Thursday and said he's excited about the potential mix on defense for his new team, joining John Klingberg, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell.
"I think they've got a good group already with Klingberg and Heiskanen, those guys are solid players and I'm just excited to be a part of that," Suter said. "I'm looking forward to having a lot of success. Helping those guys, they'll help me, I just think it'll be a good fit for the d-corps."

While Suter is 36 and has played almost 1,200 regular season games, he feels he has plenty of tread left on the tire. The minute-eater was bought out by the Minnesota Wild, which was trying to move in a new direction and bought out both Suter and Zach Parise, who each had four years remaining on 13-year contracts. As such, Dallas gets Suter at a lower price with an average salary of $3.65 million, down from the $7.53 million cap hit he had in Minnesota.
Suter said the experience of being bought out was shocking, but that it also provided him an opportunity to get a fresh start in Dallas.
"When I received the call, I didn't know what to say," Suter said of being informed he was being bought out. "I know that I've played solid, and I know that I have a lot more to give, so you go through that phase. Then, as you go further along, you think, This is a great opportunity for me.' You get to go pick a team that has a chance to win a Stanley Cup. I felt 27 again with all these teams calling, really trying to get us to come to their team. So you go from a low to the ultimate high. As a professional athlete, you want to be wanted. It was very eye-opening to see all of the options that we had."<br>The Stars definitely wanted Suter. After losing Jamie Oleksiak in the expansion draft to Seattle, Dallas needed a replacement who could play top-four minutes and Suter is both smart and well-conditioned. He doesn't get worn down during the game and he's equally adept at defending a play and springing a forward into the offensive zone with a good pass. He said he doesn't feel that the years and games have worn him down at all.<br>"I think I can play until 45 if I want," Suter said when he was asked if the four-year extension seems long. "I just think that the way I play hasn't gone down over the last 10 years. I think it's actually gotten better. I feel stronger, more experienced."<br>Suter said the good part of becoming a free agent was he was wooed by other teams, and he heard their evaluations of where he is.<br>"It was a good conversation I had with a lot of the teams, and a lot of them felt the same I did," he said. "They told me] 'You can play as long as you want the way you play. You really don't get hit that often, you think the game, you make good hard passes, you're in good shape, you take care of your body.' So all of those things give me a lot of confidence that I can play after this contract if I want to."
The Stars are hoping he makes a seamless transition. Heiskanen is 22, Lindell is 27 and Klingberg is 29. All three are high-minute players. Coaches will be able to manage Suter's game if needed. What's more, the Stars added Finnish defenseman Jani Hakanpää, 29, as a free agent on Thursday. Hakanpää is right-handed, so he gives the Stars some options on how they want to put the defense pairs together. Suter likes to play the left side, but with Klingberg and Hakanpää on the right side, there is an opportunity to juggle things up.
"I'm not too worried about it," Suter said. "They've got a great coaching staff and I'll play wherever they need me to play so that we have the best chance to win."
Suter said he talked to several people who know Stars head coach Rick Bowness and heard nothing but positive things. Bowness is a long-time assistant coach who has mentored some of the best defensemen in the league. He took over as head coach in 2019 and helped Dallas to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final before losing to Tampa Bay.
"There's a bunch of guys who have reached out to me, saying how great a guy Rick Bowness is," Suter said. "I'm really looking forward to that. You need those coaches that have that experience that know how to manage the different players. So that was a part of it."
Suter also is long-time friends with Stars forward Joe Pavelski. The two grew up in the same area of Wisconsin playing against each other in youth hockey. Now, they live near each other in Wisconsin and their kids play youth hockey together.<br>"I see Joe every day," Suter said. "His son Nate plays with my son Brooks, we're very close with them. He had nothing but great things to say. When a guy like him is telling you that all the guys on the team are talking to him, saying,Hey, you gotta get him to sign here,' that makes you feel great, it makes you feel welcome. It was a big part of the decision. Joe and I grew up playing against each other. Now, we get to go try to win together."
And that, Suter said, is the most important reason he's in Dallas. He said he believes this team has a great chance to win a Stanley Cup.
"I know I felt there was so much pressure for me because I wanted to make sure I picked the right situation to give me the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup," he said. "To win the Stanley Cup would mean the world to me and that's what I'm going to Dallas to do."
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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.