Pius Suter only spent two seasons as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, but had plenty of memorable experiences to show for it. Tonight, October 13, heâ€ll make his return to Rogers Arena for the first time since signing with his new team, the St. Louis Blues, in free agency.
Suter first suited up for the Canucks on October 11, 2023, after signing a two-year deal with the team in free agency. He scored his first goal with the team on November 2, potting Vancouverâ€s eighth of the game in a 10–1 drumming of the San Jose Sharks. This was part of an impressive five-game stretch in which he scored four goals.
December 19, 2023 was Suterâ€s first multi-point game as a member of the Canucks. The forward scored a goal and an assist against the Nashville Predators, a team that would come to dislike him even more later on in the spring of 2024. Only four games later, he registered his first multi-goal game with the Canucks, putting two past the Ottawa Senators and assisting on one of Elias Petterssonâ€s two goals of the game.
Interestingly enough, Suter seems to have a knack for scoring hat tricks against teams that he will end up joining at some point in the future. Back in 2021, as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, Suter scored his first NHL hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings — a team he ultimately ended up joining only a season after. The forwardâ€s second career hat trick, and first with the Canucks, came against his current team, the Blues, on January 24 of 2024. Suter was the only Canuck to score in this particular game.
By far Suterâ€s most notable moment in his time with the Canucks was during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He scored Vancouverâ€s game-tying goal in Game 1 of their first round matchup against the Predators, helping the team to an eventual 4–2 win in their first home-ice playoff game in nearly 10 years. This, however, paled in comparison to his late heroics in a tight, 0–0 Game 6 in Nashville. Having already squandered an opportunity to advance to the second round, the Canucks were deadlocked with the Predators at a 0–0 score. It was Suter who broke to tie with less than two minutes to go in the final period, firing it past Juuse Saros right in front of the net after a timely no-look pass from Brock Boeser. Suterâ€s goal stood as the gameâ€s tiebreaker.
Heading into the 2024–25 season, many were aware of Suter entering the final year of his contract, but didnâ€t see as many concerns as the ones that arose towards the start of 2025. At the start of the season, Vancouver had a relatively healthy pool of depth down the middle, making Suter appear somewhat expendable. However, as time passed, it was clear that this may not have been the case long-term. Injuries forced players out of the lineup throughout the season, resulting in Suter being only one of two centers who played more than 80 games for the Canucks this year.
Offensively, Suter hit another gear in 2024–25. By the end of December, Suter was fourth in goal-scoring for the Canucks, having tallied 11 in 35 games. This total was already only four goals away from his career-high of 15 in a single season. He ended up breaking his personal record on March 1 against the Seattle Kraken, scoring his 16th goal of the season in 59 games played.
Suterâ€s role with the team shifted at the end of January, but changed more substantially towards mid-March. As much as the J.T. Miller trade impacted each playerâ€s role with the team, these things didnâ€t change as much as they did when centers Filip Chytil and Elias Pettersson both had their seasons cut short due to injury within the span of a week. This forced Suter into the role of first-line center — an opportunity that he hadnâ€t had at all yet in his time with the Canucks.
From the day Pettersson got injured to the end of the season, Suter logged the highest playing time of all forwards with 252:37 minutes in 12 games. In this span of time, he took the most faceoffs (208), logged the third-highest power play minutes (34:31) and time on the penalty kill (26:22), and scored the most points (5G, 5A). When put in the role of a top-six center, Suter performed well, forcing the Canucks to face tough decisions heading into the off-season.
Suter capped off his time with the Canucks very memorably, helping lead the effort to keep Vancouverâ€s playoff hopes alive by only a thread when down to the wire. The Canucks made NHL history on April 8, coming back from a 5–2 deficit within the final minute of regulation in a game against the Dallas Stars. Two of the three goals scored by the Canucks came from Suter, who found the back of the net to tie the game with six seconds remaining in regulation.
Vancouver will welcome Suter back to Rogers Arena tonight when he and the Blues arrive for their 4:00 pm PT matchup. This game will be available to stream on Amazon Prime as part of Prime Monday Night Hockey.
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