Report: Former Canucks forward Brandon Sutter to attend Edmonton Oilers camp on tryout

Former Vancouver Canucks forward Brandon Sutter will attend Edmonton Oilers training camp this fall on a tryout basis, Oilers radio broadcaster Bob Stauffer reported Tuesday evening.

Sutter, 34, has not played in the National Hockey League since the 2020–21 season. He missed both 2021–22 and 2022–23 while recovering from Long COVID symptoms, which he opened up about in an interview on Donnie & Dhali – The Team earlier this year.

After being acquired by the Canucks in 2015, Sutter collected 54 goals and 104 points in 275 games over parts of six seasons with the team.

The Canucks were ravaged by COVID-19 late in the 2020–21 season, with the vast majority of the team coming down with the illness. The team went on hiatus for more than 20 days while the players recovered and the end of their season had to be postponed to make up for the missed time.

Most of the team was able to pick up where they left off. So did Sutter, at first. But he started noticing some serious issues when it came time for him to prepare for the 2021–22 season.

“Yeah, it is frustrating. It comes out of nowhere. When we got it as a team, we all didn’t feel good,” Sutter said in March. “I think there was something like 18 of us, 19 of us that got it. We were all pretty sick for two weeks, especially those first three or four days — it was horrible.

“I think we played, what was it, maybe 20 days after we all kinda got it. Wasn’t much [of an] issue then, I didn’t really feel anything was bothering me. It was kinda mid-summer, I guess a couple months after the season, that I started noticing just difficulty breathing sometimes. Like, I couldn’t figure out what it was. And then when I really started ramping up my training in August, and my skating and everything, I just started realizing there was no way I could do this.”

Sutter had signed a one-year contract with the Canucks for the 2021–22 season, but he sat out the entire year without drawing into a single game. He continued to recover during the 2022–23 season and did not sign a contract with any NHL team.

Through 770 career NHL games over parts of 13 seasons with the Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Carolina Hurricanes, Sutter has collected 152 goals and 289 points. The right-handed center has added nine goals and 18 points in 50 playoff contests.