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Bruce Boudreau comments on a controversial topic/player for the Wild.
Keystone Press.

Bruce Boudreau comments on a controversial topic/player for the Wild.

Boudreau answering the tough questions.

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

One of the most talked about topics surrounding the Minnesota Wild in the past several years has been the play and use of defenseman Ryan Suter in the team's line up, and with a new head coach many were asking how he would be utilized.

Suter is the kind of player who eats up huge minutes and by all accounts prefers to play those kinds of big minutes, but Boudreau is not the kind of coach to lean so heavily on one player. Boudreau appeared to hint at the fact that Suter's play time could depend on his teammates.

"It depends how good the rest of the defense is," Boudreau said as per the Star Tribune. "All I said is my thing is I've never had a defenseman play the kind of minutes he plays, but that doesn’t mean he won't play those kind of minutes.

Something that is likely to sit well with Suter however is that Boudreau made it clear that newly hired assistant coach Scott Stevens would be overseeing the majority of the decision on defense, albeit obviously with some input from the head coach.

"It'll mostly depend on [Stevens]. He’s going to be running the defense. Ryan is one of the best ones out there, so he'll play a lot. How much? I don’t know. I haven’t been on a bench with him once in my life."

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