Pius Suter surprisingly being evaluated for injury after Corey Perry incident

Monday night's preseason game between the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers was an eventful one, with plenty to reflect on and discuss. When it was all said and done, the Oilers emerged victorious 3-2 after a shootout.

Corey Perry came away with the game's First Star, in part due to his goal which tied the game at 1-1 early in the final period. He was also his usual physical, trouble-making self, as evidenced by when he squared up to the Canucks' Pius Suter.

The reason for Perry doing this, was because he took exception to how Suter manhandled Connor McDavid in an incident during the third period. However, even though the renowned tough guy dropped his gloves, the Canucks' forward didn't particularly want to fight, resulting in the scuffle being much ado about nothing.

Potential injury for Suter?

Or so it seemed. On Tuesday, one of the first things noticed was that Suter wasn't on the ice for practice at Rogers Arena.

Following practice, Sportsnet 650 and Canucks play-by-play commentator Brendan Batcherlor was among the media who spoke to Rick Tocchet about the absence of Suter. The Canucks head coach surprisingly admitted that the 28-year-old was being evaluated for potential injury, after his run-in with Perry.

Canucks fans will obviously be hoping this is just a precautionary measure and/or that nothing is seriously wrong with Suter. There would be a certain amount of irony, if he ends up being injured after trying not to get too physical with Perry.

An integral role on the Canucks roster

Suter is expected to play an important part for the Canucks in his second season in Vancouver, as their fourth line centre. Despite being projected for the bottom line, he's still an invaluable player who would be higher up the depth chart on other teams.

In this respect, the former Detroit Red Wing did spend the majority of the 2023-24 campaign playing alongside J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Among other things, he produced 29 points in 67 games, and set single-season personal bests with a +17 rating and 54.4 Corsi For % in All Situations.

Suter is entering the second season of his two-year contract with the Canucks, which carries an Average Annual Value of $1.6 million. While nothing is certain at this stage, Kiefer Sherwood and Daniel Sprong are in serious contention to take up the wing positions on either side of the Swiss international on the fourth line.

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