Pius Suter (born 24 May 1996) is a Swiss professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

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for the

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce B ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). He has also played for the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

and

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

Playing career

Suter played as a youth in the junior program of the

ZSC Lions The Zürcher Schlittschuh Club Lions (ZSC Lions) are a professional ice hockey team located in Zürich, Switzerland, playing in the National League (NL). Their home arena is the 12,000-seat Swiss Life Arena. The team was founded in 1930 and playe ...

before opting to play major junior hockey in North America with the

Guelph Storm The Guelph Storm are a major junior ice hockey team based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. They have played in the OHL since the 1991–92 season. The team plays home games at the Sleeman Centre. History The franchise started as the Toronto Marlb ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

(OHL) after his selection in the

CHL Import Draft The CHL Import Draft is an annual event in which every team in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) may select the rights to eligible import players. An import is classified as a player who does not have residency status in either Canada or the U ...

in 2013. Suter helped contribute with 24 points in 66 games as Guelph were crowned OHL champions. At the completion of his second season with the Storm in 2014–15, Suter recorded a break-out season in posting over a point-per-game average with 72 in just 61 games with Guelph. At the end of his junior career, Suter opted to pursue his professional career with the

. In the 2016–17 season, Suter was signed to a one-year contract extension through 2018 on 20 December 2016. On 26 August 2017, Suter scored a CHL record of 4 goals with the Lions in an 11–1 blowout win against French team,

Rapaces de Gap Rapaces de Gap (french: Les Rapaces de Gap) is a French ice hockey team that is based in Gap and plays home games at the Patinoire Brown-Ferrand. The team played in the Ligue Magnus during the 2009–10 Ligue Magnus season. Gap won the French Ch ...

. Suter was invited to the 2017

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

rookie camp in September, forcing him to miss the start of the 2017–18 season. On his return, Suter would go on to be a part of the ZSC Lions NL championship winning team, leading the team in assists for the season. Prior to the start of the 2018–19 season, the ZSC Lions announced that Suter had been included in the training camp roster for the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ( ...

. Returning to ZSC after failing to gain a contract with the Islanders, on 28 November 2018, Suter agreed to an early four-year contract extension with the Lions through the 2022–23 season. Suter finished the 2019–20 season as the league's

PostFinance Top Scorer The PostFinance Top Scorer is awarded annually to the Swiss National League (NL) and Swiss League (SL) player who leads the league in points at the end of the regular season. The reigning Top Scorer from each team wears a yellow flame-emblazoned ...

with 53 points, including 30 goals, in 50 regular season games. He was also named MVP of the regular season. On 13 July 2020, Suter announced he was leaving the NL and the ZSC Lions, using his exit-clause in his contract in order to pursue his career in North America and the NHL. On 16 July 2020, Suter was signed as an undrafted free agent to a one-year, entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. With the 2020–21 North American season set to be delayed due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Suter remained in Switzerland and was loaned by the Blackhawks to return to ZSC Lions' affiliate, the

GCK Lions Grasshopper Club Küsnacht Lions known as GCK Lions is a Swiss professional ice hockey team founded in 1932. They are currently playing in the Swiss League (SL), Switzerland's second tier ice hockey division, as the affiliate to the ZSC Lions. Th ...

of the

Swiss League The Swiss League is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League. The winners of the league each season plays a best-of-seven series against the bottom team of the NL, and if they win, th ...

, on 9 September 2020. On 2 November, with the NHL future still uncertain, Suter officially returned to the ZSC Lions. On 20 December 2020, after making six appearances with the Lions, Suter was recalled from loan by the Blackhawks. Suter made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks on 13 January 2021 against the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...

. Suter scored his first NHL goal, as well as his first career hat trick, on 24 January against

Jonathan Bernier Jonathan Bernier (born August 7, 1988) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted in the first round, 11th overall, of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angel ...

of the

. He became the second player in franchise history to score each of his first three career NHL goals in the same game, joining Bill Kendall on 17 December 1933. On 28 July 2021, the

signed Suter to a two-year contract. Appearing in all 82 regular season games during the 2021–22 season, Suter recorded 15 goals and 21 assists in his first year with the Red Wings. On 11 August 2023, as an

unrestricted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, Suter signed a two-year, $3.6 million contract with the

International play

Suter first represented

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

at the junior level at the

2013 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2013 IIHF U18 World Championship was the 15th IIHF World U18 Championship and was hosted in Sochi, Russia. This was also a test event for the facilities to be used in the 2014 Winter Olympics. It began on 18 April 2013 with the gold medal ga ...

. He also featured for the Swiss at the

2013 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament The 2013 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament is an under-18 ice hockey tournament held in Břeclav, Czech Republic and Piešťany, Slovakia from August 5–10, 2013. As in the previous three years, the venues are Alcaplast Arena in Břeclav and East ...

and in two World Junior Championships in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. Suter was added to the Swiss national team at the senior level in preparation for the

2017 IIHF World Championship The 2017 IIHF World Championship, the 2017 edition of the annual Ice Hockey World Championships, was held from 5 to 21 May 2017 in Cologne, Germany and Paris, France. The official tournament mascots were Asterix and Obelix, the main characters f ...

. He would make the final squad and make his full international debut in the round-robin stage. Suter was named as part of Switzerland's roster for the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

, where he scored a hat-trick in the game against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, also adding assists on Switzerland's lone goals in the game against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and the playoff game against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suter, Pius 1996 births Living people Chicago Blackhawks players Detroit Red Wings players GCK Lions players Guelph Storm players Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Switzerland Swiss ice hockey forwards Undrafted National Hockey League players Vancouver Canucks players ZSC Lions players Ice hockey people from the canton of Zürich