Off-Season Targets – Brandon Sutter

Alex, and Romulus have been doing a fine job with the Off-Season Targets series. They’ve been going through a pretty heavy list of defenseman so far and of course I had to mix it up with center man Paul Stastny. Rom and Alex asked what the hell I was doing with a forward amidst all those D-men so well I figure why should I change, today I’m going to look at another potential center.

This time the center I’m looking for isn’t an Unrestricted free agent but an RFA. The good news is the team may be looking to change somethings up after a few years of playoff disappointment.

Brandon Sutter

Like I said, he’s a restricted free agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I’m of the belief that the Pens may be willing to move him for the right price. It was reported that the Penguins took a shot at Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler back in February right around the trade deadline, Sutter was one of the players said to be involved in the offer.

Now the Oilers don’t have a Kesler to trade (How awesome would it be if we did) but after Pittsburgh’s early playoff exit and firing GM Ray Shero, I think they’ll look to make some pretty substantial changes. There is more than one player on the Pens that I think could be had, but for a reasonable price Brandon Sutter is my man.

Sutter was acquired on draft day in 2012 in exchange for Jordan Staal. While he hasn’t been as effective as Staal was with the Pens, he’s still been good. I see Sutter stepping in with the Oilers and playing in the third/fourth line center spot. He’s got speed to spare, is a bigger body (6’3”) and he has scored in the past.

His best offensive season was all the way back in 2009/2010 where he scored 21 goals and added 19 assists during only his second NHL season. Since then he’s averaged around just over 26 points a season. He’s young and the potential is still there, I think he’d fit best in the third line roll rotating to the fourth with Boyd Gordon.

I mentioned above that he’s young, only 25. I think the fact that he’s had playoff experience, and played with great players, he would bring a leadership quality to the Oilers and could one day be potential captain material. Think Ethan Moreau here.

Sutter faced above average competition when compared to most other third line centers, his possession numbers suffered a bit this season, but he has had some good years in that area. When you are on the bottom two lines, puck possession and production are both important qualities in a forward and Sutter has the right amount of both attributes.

There are a few other forwards we are going to be looking at when it comes to the Oilers bottom 6 in this Off-Season Targets series, I don’t want to blow the cat out of the bag so to speak but I could imagine a third line of Brandon Sutter along with Say Nikolai Kulemin and Daniel Winnik? Or David Moss?

The other thing this does is bring another younger, but not inexperienced player, in to be a center. We then have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (21 years old), Sam Gagner (24 years old) I do think Gagner will be gone, but say we’re lucky and we get Paul Stastny (28 years old), Sutter (25 years old) and Boyd Gordon (30 years old). That is one hell of a core of centers for years to come, with only adding one maybe two guys.

Thanks for Reading.

Make sure you check out the rest of the series for far;

Brooks Orpik

Mark Fayne

Andrei Markov

Alexander Edler

Paul Stastny

Dmitri Kulikov

Johnny Boychuk

Dion Phaneuf

Christian Erhoff