The Detroit Red Wings are competing and probably doing far better than many fans were expecting them to do this season. Several players have risen to the occasion, and others have found roles to help this team function.
However, the 2022-23 season has not been kind to everyone on the Detroit Red Wings roster. Pius Suter is one of the players who has left more to be desired with his performance this season. He has not quite dialed it in with his offensive production.
It seems that he has become more of a third-line or fourth-line forward who spends more of his time in the bottom six than in the top six as he did before. When the Red Wings signed Suter to his two-year, $6.5 million contract, it was anticipated he would bring a versatile, puck-moving forward into the mix.
Detroit Red Wings forward Pius Suter is struggling in a bottom-six role.
In 2021-22, Suter played in all 82 games for the Red Wings, where he scored 15 goals and added 21 assists for 36 total points. He was averaging close to 17 minutes of ice time a night. He was often on the second line, and things changed for him this off-season.
The influx of forwards into the lineup with the signings of Andrew Copp, Dominik Kubalík, and David Perron meant he would get bumped around. While it’s no real fault of his own, Suter was relegated to the bottom-six area of the Red Wings’ forward core.
It has resulted in the Red Wings forward managing a measly four goals and four assists for eight points over 26 games played. He has seen a reduction in his ice time as well in 2022-23, averaging just under 13 minutes of ice time.
It’s not the strangest phenomenon here. Suter lost out on ice time and struggled to find the back of the net when he is on the ice. His 58.7% defensive zone start percentage, which is up six percent from last season, also plays into this.
Suter is getting fewer opportunities to impact the team on offense. He’s not on the special teams’ units, either. The one difference is that the Red Wings’ third line this year is equal to or better than last year’s second line at times, so it’s not that Suter has a huge talent reduction.
The talent around him has been good; the other factors are weighing heavily on Suter. There has to be some hope that Suter can pick up the pace and tap into some scoring as the 2022-23 season continues.