Business is starting to pick up on the Ryan Suter front. After a quiet Monday and a relatively quiet Tuesday morning, things got going when it was discovered that a plane belonging to Mike Ilitch had flown to Madison, Wisconsin. It wasn't there for very long, but the stop was certainly long enough for the Detroit Red Wings to meet with Suter, who lives in Madison.
Shortly after Ilitch's plane took off to return to Detroit, there was more activity in the form of a report about the Red Wings' contract offer to Suter. From the Free Press' Helene St. James:
#RedWings initial offer to Ryan Suter was $80 M, 13 years, now up to $90 M. Team wants to keep cap # reasonable - preferably under $7 M
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) July 3, 2012
Following the first day of NHL free agency, there was a report that the Red Wings made a 12-year offer to Suter worth $90 million. If the offer is in fact currently at $90 million with a 13th year, then the cap hit would be only $6.9 million a season rather than $7.5 million. St. James reports that the Red Wings want to be able to retain flexibility cap-wise, and all things considered, a cap hit of $6.9 million a year for a player like Suter isn't bad by any means.
St. James also tweeted this about Suter on Tuesday afternoon:
Impression is, D Ryan Suter wants to go to "quiet market." #RedWings would fit as they have passionate fans w/o intense scrutiny
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) July 3, 2012
I don't know if I would go that far considering we are tracking flights just to figure out what the Red Wings are up to, but I get her point. Everything players do off the ice isn't tracked (once they're actually on the team, anyway), and it's not like New York where there is an intense amount of pressure.
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