3 reasons why it might be beneficial to keep Ryan Suter on the Stars

Let me get my armor plates in my tactical vest situated because bullets will fly with this topic. One of the biggest topics for the Dallas Stars this offseason is whether they should buy out Ryan Suter this offseason. It wouldn’t be as bad of a buyout as the Oliver Ekman-Larsson one but it could hinder the Stars down the road from keeping key pieces from resigning with the Stars Let’s take a look at the Suter buyout situation in the next paragraph.

Ryan Suter’s buyout situation

According to CapFriendly, a Suter buyout would be cheap for the next two seasons as it only costs $783.33 against the cap. After that, it will rise to $1,433,333 against the cap from 2025-2027. While it might seem cheap to do, it could end up biting the Stars in the butt down the road when some key pieces like Jake Oettinger and Wyatt Johnston need new deals to stay in Dallas. Let’s take a look at three reasons why it might be wise to keep Suter through his deal.

Keep Ryan Suter: 3. It Doesn’t hurt to have another veteran on the team

With many of our defensemen prospects on the cusp of making the roster, Suter could provide some valuable mentorship for them at training camp. He can also help Thomas Harley grow into the top three defensemen the Stars are hoping Harley will become. Just look at how Joe Pavelski turned Wyatt Johnston into one of the top rookies during the 2022-23 season. Sometimes prospects learning from veteran players can expedite their development.

Keep Ryan Suter: 2. Harley isn’t ready to take over his minutes just yet

Sean Shapiro brought this up in his latest article about Suter. He thinks that Suter is hindering Harley’s chances from becoming the bonafide number two defenseman on the team. However, I think he is sort of wrong on this point. Harley only played 40 games in his young NHL career. He needs some more experience in the NHL before we can call him the number two defenseman on this team.

If I’m Pete DeBoer, I’m not really ready to hand over all the minutes Suter plays to him. Imagine if Suter got bought out next week and Harley just can’t handle the workload of being a number 2 defenseman. The Stars would be in a worse place than with him in the lineup. DeBoer should slowly start to increase his minutes and duties throughout the 2023-24 season to see if Harley can handle it.

Keep Ryan Suter: 1. Could prevent the Stars from resigning key piece down the road

The last reason why the Stars should keep Ryan Suter on the roster is the dead cap could prevent the Stars from resigning a key piece to the roster. Imagine if the dead cap from his buyout prevented the Stars from giving a player like Jason Robertson or Oettinger the new extension they deserve. the fanbase would not let the front office hear the end of that. It just seems smarter to keep him for another two seasons and let his contract run out so they can avoid that issue down the road.

Keep Ryan Suter: Conclusion

Let me get in the bulletproof bunker for this statement, but it’s smart to keep Suter on the roster. It can be beneficial when it comes to prospects developing to being able to keep key players in Dallas for a while. I doubt Jim Nill would want to screw the Stars’ cap space in the future. I know fans don’t like how Suter is missing his assignments on the ice which leads to easy goals for opponents. Letting his deal run out is the smartest thing to do instead of buying him out now.