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Sutter commits to ’Canes

Carolina Hurricanes management obviously thinks highly of Brandon Sutter.
Brandon Sutter 110709jer
Brandon Sutter has proven a lot of his critics wrong in his three years in Raliegh

Carolina Hurricanes management obviously thinks highly of Brandon Sutter.

The feeling is mutual.

Hurricanes president/GM Jim Rutherford signed Sutter to a three-year contract this week, a deal that will pay the 22-year-old former Red Deer Rebels captain a total of $6.2 million, including $2.7 million in the final season.

“I’m obviously pretty excited about it. I wanted to stay there. It’s a good place to be and I was glad to get three years,” said Sutter, a celebrity golfer in the Sutter Fund tournament Friday at River Bend.

“I wanted to get the longest deal I could that would still make sense numbers-wise. I was pretty excited to get this and now I’m just looking forward to getting on with the next few years.”

Upon announcing the signing, Rutherford was downright glowing when commenting on Sutter and his importance to the team, citing the young centre’s penchant for intelligent play and his emerging leadership skills. In just his third year with the ‘Canes, Sutter was anointed as an alternate captain during the past season.

“We had a couple of guys who moved on. Rod Brind’Amour retired and Ray Whitney went elsewhere (Phoenix), so they named myself and Tim Gleason as alternate captains,” said Sutter. “That’s a big honour and I think it shows the coaches have a little bit of trust in me now and it’s obviously a good feeling.”

A versatile player, Sutter excelled in a defensive role last season while scoring 14 goals and collecting 29 points in 82 games. He led the team in plus/minus at plus-13 and blocked shots with 73.

“I’d like to think I’ve come a long ways. The coaches have put a lot of trust in me and there’s a lot of games where there are some pretty good players I have to play against shift in and shift out,” he said. “But I enjoy the challenge and I think I’m in that two-way centre role where a lot of nights they want me to play against the other team’s best guys. It’s a challenge, but it’s fun.”

The ‘Canes raised a few eyebrows when they placed their first-round pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft on the team roster just one year later.

Sutter was 19 at the time and many expected he would be back with the Rebels that season.

The skeptics were somewhat vindicated when the youngster garnered just six points — including a single goal ­— while seeing mostly spot duty with Carolina through 50 games. Sutter finished the season with Albany of the AHL and sniped four goals and collected 12 points in 22 games with the River Rats.

Clearly, the time spent in the minors didn’t hurt Sutter, who went on to snipe 21 goals and add 19 assists in 72 games with the Hurricanes in 2009-10. It was a break-through season of impressive proportions.

Sutter didn’t dismiss the notion that the AHL stint helped him on his way, however . . .

“I think it was more a matter of me just getting chance to play (in Carolina),” he said. “The first year I never really had a chance to play above fourth-line centre, I never really got the opportunity to play much at all. The next summer I worked hard and going into the (‘09-10) season I just kind of had the mindset that I was going to play regularly.”

He was demoted to Albany early that season, but was recalled by the ‘Canes in short order and the rest is history.

“When I was called back I wanted to make the most of it. I realized that once they gave me the opportunity I was ready to play,” he said.

The jury is still out on the theory that Sutter would have been better suited playing in the WHL as a 19-year-old, although he insisted that the path he took was ultimately the superior option for him.

“I think having the experience of being the guy who wasn’t always playing a lot . . . having to go through that experience probably made me better in the end,” he said. “Obviously I’m glad that’s all in the past and I’m just happy that I’ve kind of established myself.”

• Sutter participated in last weekend’s exhibition game at Sylvan Lake that featured 18 members of the 2001 Memorial Cup champion Red Deer squad versus other Rebels alumni.

Shane Bendera, essentially the ‘forgotten man’ from the national championship team, was also on hand for the contest.

That’s a strange monicker to hang on a person who played such a major role with the Memorial Cup team, the goaltender who was the MVP of the 2001 WHL playoffs and a sixth-round NHL draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets the year before. But the fact is, Bendera basically dropped out of sight after playing two seasons of minor pro hockey.

Bendera, who blocked shots for the Rebels for two full seasons before being dealt to Kelowna in the 2001-02 WHL campaign, suited up with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in ‘02-03 and then another ECHL team, the Bakersfield Condors, the following season.

And then came the NHL strike and the end of his playing days.

“The year of the strike I kind of got screwed over by Columbus,” said Bendera, who didn’t appear in the alumni game due to a severe, work-related ankle injury he suffered a year ago. “They got rid of the last year of my contract so I just decided to get a real job. I packed it in and went back to Edmonton. Now I’m home every night with my family (a wife and two-year-old daughter). They keep me busy.”

These days he’s working as an architectural designer and estimator for Armour-Clad Contracting in Edmonton, a position he landed after completing 12 months of digital schooling.

Bendera, 29, welcomed the opportunity to re-acquaint himself with his Memorial Cup teammates.

“It’s been great to see all the guys. It just seems like yesterday we were in Regina celebrating after the Memorial Cup. No one has really changed,” he said.

“You look around the group now, at some of the guys that are in the NHL. (Colby) Armstrong hasn’t changed, neither have (Jim) Vandermeer or (Jeff) Woywitka. We had a great bunch of guys and it’s great to see them again. Now the (Rebels) wants to do this every year so we can get together again and relive the moment.”

gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com