{"id":629559,"date":"2026-03-03T16:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/629559\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:19:16","slug":"red-wings-place-erik-gustafsson-on-waivers-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/629559\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings Place Erik Gustafsson On Waivers \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Red Wings placed veteran defenseman Erik Gustafsson<\/strong><\/a> on waivers today, according to Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman<\/a>. The move paves the way for the Red Wings to open up a spot on their 23-man roster, as this waiver placement was likely made with the intent of sending the blueliner down to the team\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.<\/p>\n

The move doesn\u2019t come as a major surprise, as Gustafsson has been a frequent healthy scratch for the Red Wings in his most recent stint on their NHL roster. Since being recalled on Jan. 15, Gustafsson has dressed for just a single game, serving as a healthy scratch for 11 of the team\u2019s 12 contests. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While he did receive over 20 minutes of ice time in the game he was dressed for \u2013 a 5-0 loss to the Avalanche on Jan. 31 \u2013 it\u2019s been clear for some time that Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan prefers to staff his defense with other players.<\/p>\n

As a result, this has been a difficult season for the 33-year-old. A veteran of over 500 games, Gustafsson was once a 60-point scorer, an emerging offensive force from the back-end as a part of the Chicago Blackhawks in the late 2010s.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t able to sustain that level of production for very long, though, and began bouncing around the league, offering his services as a bottom-pairing puck-moving defenseman with power play utility to various teams. He even made a few deep playoff runs in the process, winning a Clarence S. Campbell Bowl with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, and appearing in the Eastern Conference Final in 2024 as a member of the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n

Gustafsson made the most of that Rangers tenure in particular, which is what landed him in Detroit in the first place. The Red Wings signed Gustafsson to a two-year, $2MM AAV deal on July 1, 2024 after he managed to provide New York with a significant amount of surplus value on his prior deal, having scored 31 points on just an $825K salary. He wasn\u2019t able to bring that kind of effectiveness to Detroit, scoring just 18 points in 60 games.<\/p>\n

So far in 2025-26, he\u2019s fallen further down Detroit\u2019s depth chart. He\u2019s been a staple in the press box when on the NHL roster, and has just two NHL games played this season. He\u2019s been productive in the AHL, scoring 20 points in 22 games, but those are also his first AHL games since the 2017-18 season.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s news comes at a crucial point in Gustafsson\u2019s career. As a pending UFA, he\u2019s undoubtedly hoping to be able to enter the offseason player market on as strong footing as possible. The longer he spends as a healthy scratch and\/or AHL player as a member of the Red Wings organization, the lower his chances are of getting a contract anywhere close to the $2MM salary he received in his last run as a UFA.<\/p>\n

With the player movement expected to come in the lead up to this week\u2019s trade deadline, it\u2019s possible a spot frees up on another team that would allow Gustafsson to play out the rest of the season at the NHL level. But seeing as his waiver placement is coming before that movement is finalized, it\u2019s fair to question whether teams will be willing to place a claim on Gustafsson, given that other players could be on waivers or otherwise available as the week progresses.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Red Wings placed veteran defenseman Erik Gustafsson on waivers today, according to Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[2993,156392,293,62,67,132,68,46705],"class_list":["post-629559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-erik-gustafsson","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-waivers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116166155899412059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}