- Riley Sutter batted a bouncing puck out of midair for a KHL preseason goal
- The son of ex-Flyers captain Ron Sutter has never played an NHL game
- Read below for the full video and how the goal fit into a wild 7-5 loss
A Sutter is not supposed to score like this.
Riley Sutter, son of longtime NHL center Ron Sutter, batted a puck out of the air and past former Hershey teammate Zach Fucale in a KHL preseason game in Minsk. He set the whole thing up by accident. His centering attempt hit a Dinamo Minsk defenseman, popped straight up over the crease, and Sutter took a baseball swing at it from almost no angle before it could land.
The KHL put the clip out with a baseball emoji, which covers it about as well as anything:
Sutter’s swing came 2:17 into the third period and pulled the Shanghai Dragons within a goal at 5-4.
Shanghai could not finish the comeback. Dinamo Minsk took the Minsk Cup opener 7-5, and Sergei Kuznetsov put it away into an empty net inside the final minute, per the KHL’s own recap. Dmitrij Jaskin scored twice in his Dragons debut.
Washington drafted Sutter in the third round in 2018 and held onto him until the summer of 2025. He never dressed for an NHL game. He did win two Calder Cups with the Hershey Bears, which is more hardware than most third-rounders ever get near.
The last name does a lot of work here. Riley’s father Ron captained the Flyers, and his uncles Brian, Darryl, Duane, Brent and Rich all carved out NHL careers of their own.
Riley is starting his second season with the Dragons after leaving North America in 2025. He posted 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 52 games last year and is one of only four players still around from that group.
Shanghai gutted the roster over the summer, with 26 players heading out the door. Ilya Kovalchuk runs the club as president, Evgeny Artyukhin came in as general manager, and Mitch Love is behind the bench after his run as Spencer Carbery’s assistant in Washington. The Dragons also just added former Oilers advisor Ryan Marsh to the staff.
Take a look at the full highlight package from Minsk:
Six Sutter brothers made their money on faceoffs, forechecking and blocked shots. Riley just put a home run on the family record.
