The Detroit Red Wings are steadily approaching the 2022-23 trade deadline. As they do so, it is essential to try to gauge which players will get interest from other teams and which players provide the best return on investment.
Maintaining and stockpiling draft capital is important, and the Detroit Red Wings have done an excellent job of that in recent years, finding ways to make moves that help the team in the long run. One unique thing about the 2022-23 season is that the Red Wings are not immediately labeled sellers.
In the last few seasons, any liquid assets the team could move, they did. They even parted ways with some of their familiar faces in players like Anthony Mantha, who was still under contract for several years.
The team has actually been rumored to be looking into bringing in some assets. Even if they do bring in players and “buy,” they could be open to shopping some of their expiring contracts. Forward Pius Suter is one of the players who could get traded.
Detroit Red Wings are trying to find value in Pius Suter.
Suter signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract and is in the second season of that contract. He has not exactly been blowing the doors off things with his performance, but he’s been steady. He’s been a consistent player, just nothing special.
In 2021-22, his first season with the Red Wings, Suter played in all 82 games, where he scored 15 goals and added 21 assists for 36 total points, a career-best. In 2022-23, Suter has six goals and six assists for 12 total points over 45 games.
He’s on pace for just 22 points which is a step down from what he had in his first season. The cause of this may simply be his linemates. He’s been kicked from the top-six into a bottom-six role, and the production has suffered.
It’s not to say the tools are not there; he’s simply not getting as much playing time and not providing as much value in a different role this season. With a roster logjam already causing the team to have to make some moves to clear up space for veterans in Grand Rapids, Suter could be a face who gets shopped.
Now, it’s not to say that Suter is going to bring home a first-round pick and be a lottery ticket for Connor Bedard, but shipping him off to a team that wants some organizational depth for a fourth-round pick should be viewed as a win.
Finding value in Suter means finding a suitor willing to part ways with a mid-round draft pick. Boom. Pull the trigger and add some draft capital. It frees up a roster spot and allows the Red Wings to add more draft capital.