Logging considerable minutes nothing new for Wild's Suter

The Minnesota Wild routinely have stated that they will monitor Ryan Suter's minutes prior to each of the last three seasons.

Without fail, however, the stud defenseman finds himself leading the league in that category - as he does thus far in this campaign (27 minutes, 39 seconds).

"In a perfect world, we'd like to keep (Suter) down in that 25-26-whatever it is range, but he’s had to step up lately," coach Mike Yeo told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "He's played more minutes, and the impressive thing is that hasn’t thrown off his game."

The Wild's world has been far from perfect of late, as Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon have been plagued by illness. In addition, fellow defenseman Marco Scandella has been missing a bit due to the personal matter of his father's ailing health.

As a result of the shrinking roster, Suter saw his ice time balloon to nearly 32 1/2 minutes against the Boston Bruins on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Wisconsin native is also chipping in on the offensive front, recording 19 points in as many games. Suter's three goals have eclipsed last season's total of two, which were recorded in 77 contests.

(h/t Minneapolis Star Tribune)