Evolving Hockey projected a 4 year/ $4.4 AAV for Gustafsson so this seems like a big ol steal to me. Dude’s metrics are really strong too. Very strong even strength player last season.
$4.4M would be asinine for Gus. He outplayed his $900k contract but nowhere near $4.4m.
For reference, 2nd pairing Cup winner Miko Mikkola signed for $2.5m last year after earning a raise from STL/NYR’s 3rd pairing in 2022. Gus is not Mikkola
With that said, it’s a cheap deal with a short term. Gus got mostly torched in the playoffs for NYR but you can’t argue with a guy who played 3rd pairing+PK mins on a Presidents Trophy winning team. Not a steal, but only a slight downgrade from Ghost.
He’ll be a serviceable bridge for Edvinsson to cross when he’s ready for big minutes on a future DET playoff team.
No doubt. That $0.5m difference is a big difference compared to last year. But the market this year still doesn’t dictate anywhere that projection for a Gus-type.
More timely comparable, Ekman-Larsson got $3.5. So even with a Cup-premium, these LD’s getting raises from successful playoff 3rd pairings are not garnering $4.4m~
Interesting, makes a lot more sense if there are some significant moves coming. But for price and term along with quality of player this is a nice fit.
People are upset when we are replacing our offensive defenseman with a defensive defenseman that still has offense upside? With that cheap of a deal? After seeing our defense last season?
This is a steal and the team is better. Our ppg will go up naturally when we aren't allowing 50 sog and can get out of our own zone.
I mean they will. They’re probably trying to put something together before the last resort of buying him out. I feel like his stock is so low, I would be shocked if any team picked him up. I would expect a buyout or trade soon.
There’s no reason to buy him out really. We missed on all the big free agents so unless we plan on making a big trade, we have tons of cap left assuming we don’t give Mo and Raymond 10 mil each
Gustafsson's a pure offensive defenceman, so he's our Ghost replacement at a lot cheaper, which I'm fine with.
But surely this blocks Johansson? Unless we plan to trade Maata or dump Holl on someone
Chiarot Seider
Edvinsson Petry
Maata Holl
Gustafsson
Johansson
e: Also trading Walman to make space for Gus? I think the kitchen's starting to smoke
Gotta play our prospects eventually, if we move on from Johansson before he's even played a game for us after drafting him 5(!) years ago I'll be pretty disappointed since aside from Soderblom nobody else from that class outside the first round looks like they're gonna make a splash
We have a ton of good D prospects. I'm not saying that we should trade Johansson, but some of these young assets will be used in deals for other needs that the team has.
I was all on board the trade berggy/Johansson train last year when we were looking good, some teams will jump at recent 2nd/3rd round picks that still have potential, if our drafting/development is letting us down (which it kinda is) the trade market might find us some lucky swaps or closer to ready prospects
I mean considering only like ~60% of first rounders and like ~25% of second rounders make it to the NHL, I don't think our drafting department is letting us down.
It’s true it could just be bad luck, but since 2019 (5 years ago), non-1st rounders have played a grand total of 21 games for us, all of those were Elmer Soderblom. Johansson stands to only be the second non-first rounder drafted since 2019 to play in the winged wheel since Yzerman took over.
At a certain point it stops being the luck of the draw and starts being a deeper issue, especially given the number of picks we’ve had.
I mean, sure but berggren was 2018 and will probably get more NHL time this year. johansson will get a chance. If injuries happen Tuomisto could get a look. Wallinder and Hanas are close. Mazur looked good last season.
I'm not concerned. First rounders are on the right track. Raymond, Seider, Edvinsson. Maybe Cossa and Kasper in another year.
Honestly I think one of the reasons Johansson, and to a lesser extent Berggren, hasn't cracked the line up is because he was a Holland pick. Stevie doesn't have any loyalty to him.
Johansson was a Stevie pick, 2019. But I get your point. If that is the reason though, AlJo should’ve been traded when he still had value, doesn’t do anybody any good to have him languish in the minors for a reason like that.
If he's not ready now I don't think he ever will be. If he's not then maybe his ceiling really is just good AHLer/fringe NHLer and we're overvaluing him.
That's fair, and good to know. Obviously I'm just a hockey fan who really doesn't know anything haha. He easily is their best defenseman besides Edvinsson if we say Ed is the #1 for the sake of this argument.
He was something special in the SHL but when he came to GR i think he got told that those type of moves he made in Sweden will not work in the AHL so he had to totally revamp his game and i dont think that went very well for him. So many players who play a certain way in juniors and when they get to the next level they get told to do the complete opposite and they just never figure it out. But yeah i watched him in the SHL a lot and it was basically Erik Karlsson reincarnated, go back and watch some highlight clips and you will see it too.
Hard not to when everyone talks him up, including Stevie.
Just one of those things, we have to hope some of those later round prospects pan out to be at least replacement level eventually, because right now outside of the 1st round we’ve got Soderblom that’s played NHL games and that’s it.
Time will tell and I truly hope I'm wrong. And it's not that I think Johansson or someone like Wallinder are bad by any means, just not as good as this sub would have you think. I watched a decent bit of them in GR and Edvinsson just looks far and away better than any other Dmen on the that team. That's what makes me think Johansson still is not ready for the NHL.
I like it as a straight up Ghost replacement. I wasn't interested in any long-term commitment to him, so this is a plus.
Not gonna say anything about the overall construction of the D core because that cannot be the whole picture right now. If it is, we have a problem, but we're not there yet.
Finally Simon Will be penciled into the defense.
Detroit defense just got that much better with Simon arrival.
Now to get rid of one of chiarot or holl please.
Just watched some highlights to refresh my memory and I totally forgot he was teammates with Kane before. Not that says anything, but still an interesting tidbit.
I think this is a good signing. To me this is better than Trouba. Less money, better stats. Only downside is that he doesn't bring that physicality...also I guess that he is a lefty.
You guys are excited about another 30+ year old meh defenseman?
Is this how far we have fallen?
Still failing to see the need of offloading a 2nd round pick for cap space.
We can dwell on that 2nd rd pick or we can look at it like:
- Out: Walman and Gibson
- In: Gustafsson and Kiiskinen
The 2nd rounder would've been nice to keep but we didnt have it to begin with and to me we are better. Edvinsson replaces Walman and Gustafsson replaces Ghostisbehere. Feels like an overall improvement...could be wrong ofc
Keep hearing he’s our ghost replacement. We really gonna see this guy on PP1 over Mo? I can see him maybe being the PP2 guy. But Mo gonna offer a ton more than this guy on the PP.
U are right but now we have 5 LHD on the active roster not including the depth probably Grand Rapids bound guy we signed earlier. None of our guys are buyout candidates on the left side these aren’t making sense
To be fair, we heard that last year, we didn't move anyone to make room, and we barely saw Ed when most of the year we were screaming for call ups because our D sucked.
Collect “talent” in the offseason and let them fight it out in the preseason. Worst case scenario is exposing guys to waivers on their way to the Griffins and where they can bury some of the cap hit.
Holy shit talk about another guy trying to play on every O6 team lol. Only needs Boston after this
All within 5 years. Another deadline trade for this lad to boston?Boston? Fastest to ever do it?
We’ve got our Ghost replacement
Yup, for much cheaper
Gust…ghost….close enough
Ghostafsson
Ya but can he Air Jordan the puck on the blue line?
I kinda wanted to keep Ghost
So did I, but if he wanted 6 million? Can't do it.
He got $3.2 AAV, I’m bummed.
Gustafsson is capable of putting up points and manning a power play, and also is more defensively capable than Ghost.
As much as I loved Ghost. He was a liability on D.
Not nearly as offensively talented though, I don’t know if our power play will be as potent without Ghost
mo will probably get more time on the power play though which is good i think
Good with it.
Ummm except for half the goals lol
This is the Dollar Store brand Ghost unfortunately
Who can play defensively
He can't definitely not an upgrade defensively
Edvinsson will not be blocked.
He’s locked into the top4
Going off his play from last season he should be top 4.
Very reasonable contract at least
Evolving Hockey projected a 4 year/ $4.4 AAV for Gustafsson so this seems like a big ol steal to me. Dude’s metrics are really strong too. Very strong even strength player last season.
Very solid defensively and God knows we need it . Good term
$4.4M would be asinine for Gus. He outplayed his $900k contract but nowhere near $4.4m. For reference, 2nd pairing Cup winner Miko Mikkola signed for $2.5m last year after earning a raise from STL/NYR’s 3rd pairing in 2022. Gus is not Mikkola With that said, it’s a cheap deal with a short term. Gus got mostly torched in the playoffs for NYR but you can’t argue with a guy who played 3rd pairing+PK mins on a Presidents Trophy winning team. Not a steal, but only a slight downgrade from Ghost. He’ll be a serviceable bridge for Edvinsson to cross when he’s ready for big minutes on a future DET playoff team.
Yeah different market than last year if you haven’t noticed
No doubt. That $0.5m difference is a big difference compared to last year. But the market this year still doesn’t dictate anywhere that projection for a Gus-type. More timely comparable, Ekman-Larsson got $3.5. So even with a Cup-premium, these LD’s getting raises from successful playoff 3rd pairings are not garnering $4.4m~
Interesting, makes a lot more sense if there are some significant moves coming. But for price and term along with quality of player this is a nice fit.
Bargain bin Gostisbehere
Better on D too
Impossible to be worse.
Petry would like a word
I’d say a target ghost. Much better defensively and equally offence. Not as good as a shot
Nowhere near equal on offense as Ghost, let’s not kid ourselves.
His favorite player growing up was Lidstrom <3
So was mine…and I can’t barely skate!
He's a Swedish defenseman. Of course it was.
Wasn't he Trouba's partner in NY?
Trouba is coming then since we got his partner
sike
I don’t understand
Maybe I understand now
It's been another 3 min, where you at now?
I have no fkin clue
[/u/geedlewis trying to figure out how he feels](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/complex/images/krabs_rag3do/None.png?output-format=jpg)
Have u figured it out yet??
How's it going now?
I feel neutral on this.
Whole day summed up in one sentence
I would love to feel neutral after last week.
People are upset when we are replacing our offensive defenseman with a defensive defenseman that still has offense upside? With that cheap of a deal? After seeing our defense last season? This is a steal and the team is better. Our ppg will go up naturally when we aren't allowing 50 sog and can get out of our own zone.
If your defenseman aren't Makar, Karlsson or an ice dancer side hustling as a hockey player people are disappointed these days.
I don't hate it. This is our Gostisbehere replacement. I still think we need to move out at least one of Maatta or Holl.
Keep maata, holl to waivers
No one is picking up Holl on waivers lmao 😂. You have to buy him out or trade him with a pick or prospect. Most likely we’ll just buy him out
Fine by me. Buy him out.
I mean they will. They’re probably trying to put something together before the last resort of buying him out. I feel like his stock is so low, I would be shocked if any team picked him up. I would expect a buyout or trade soon.
We can't. The buyout window is closed and the second one that opens if you have an arbitration case has a minimum salary higher than Holl's.
There’s no reason to buy him out really. We missed on all the big free agents so unless we plan on making a big trade, we have tons of cap left assuming we don’t give Mo and Raymond 10 mil each
Yep, I think Holl is unfortunately just a really expensive 7D for us
If only we moved him with like a 2nd.
Maatta should be easy to move. Holl not so much.
Possible that because he was Trouba's linemate, this is a negotiation piece as well as a Ghost replacement?
This is a very solid Walman replacement. Cheaper than Walman and ghost. Should pair nicely with Seider.
Gustafsson's a pure offensive defenceman, so he's our Ghost replacement at a lot cheaper, which I'm fine with. But surely this blocks Johansson? Unless we plan to trade Maata or dump Holl on someone Chiarot Seider Edvinsson Petry Maata Holl Gustafsson Johansson e: Also trading Walman to make space for Gus? I think the kitchen's starting to smoke
Gustafson is better than Walman. This subreddit massively overrates him.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t realise Gustafsson has been that good recently, I’m more okay with the signing after seeing a little more.
Johansson isn't a guarantee to stay either. We're gonna be making some trades.
Gotta play our prospects eventually, if we move on from Johansson before he's even played a game for us after drafting him 5(!) years ago I'll be pretty disappointed since aside from Soderblom nobody else from that class outside the first round looks like they're gonna make a splash
We have a ton of good D prospects. I'm not saying that we should trade Johansson, but some of these young assets will be used in deals for other needs that the team has.
I was all on board the trade berggy/Johansson train last year when we were looking good, some teams will jump at recent 2nd/3rd round picks that still have potential, if our drafting/development is letting us down (which it kinda is) the trade market might find us some lucky swaps or closer to ready prospects
I mean considering only like ~60% of first rounders and like ~25% of second rounders make it to the NHL, I don't think our drafting department is letting us down.
It’s true it could just be bad luck, but since 2019 (5 years ago), non-1st rounders have played a grand total of 21 games for us, all of those were Elmer Soderblom. Johansson stands to only be the second non-first rounder drafted since 2019 to play in the winged wheel since Yzerman took over. At a certain point it stops being the luck of the draw and starts being a deeper issue, especially given the number of picks we’ve had.
I mean, sure but berggren was 2018 and will probably get more NHL time this year. johansson will get a chance. If injuries happen Tuomisto could get a look. Wallinder and Hanas are close. Mazur looked good last season. I'm not concerned. First rounders are on the right track. Raymond, Seider, Edvinsson. Maybe Cossa and Kasper in another year.
Honestly I think one of the reasons Johansson, and to a lesser extent Berggren, hasn't cracked the line up is because he was a Holland pick. Stevie doesn't have any loyalty to him.
Johansson was a Stevie pick, 2019. But I get your point. If that is the reason though, AlJo should’ve been traded when he still had value, doesn’t do anybody any good to have him languish in the minors for a reason like that.
Ahh thank you for the correction!
No, that’s steam from the steamed clams we’re having.
Holl has got to go, either trade or send to GR. I would expect Petry and Johansson to rotate as our 7th D man to start out and see who plays better.
Johansson still is not ready imo
If he's not ready now I don't think he ever will be. If he's not then maybe his ceiling really is just good AHLer/fringe NHLer and we're overvaluing him.
I've always thought this sub has overvalued him and most of our D prospects outside of Edvinsson
Some of the griffins said last season that Aljo was their best player and best defenseman, even acknowledging Edvinsson was there.
He's a better defender with lower offensive upside. He's not going to get all of the hype but he has a lower floor than Edvinsson has been my read
That's fair, and good to know. Obviously I'm just a hockey fan who really doesn't know anything haha. He easily is their best defenseman besides Edvinsson if we say Ed is the #1 for the sake of this argument.
He was something special in the SHL but when he came to GR i think he got told that those type of moves he made in Sweden will not work in the AHL so he had to totally revamp his game and i dont think that went very well for him. So many players who play a certain way in juniors and when they get to the next level they get told to do the complete opposite and they just never figure it out. But yeah i watched him in the SHL a lot and it was basically Erik Karlsson reincarnated, go back and watch some highlight clips and you will see it too.
Hard not to when everyone talks him up, including Stevie. Just one of those things, we have to hope some of those later round prospects pan out to be at least replacement level eventually, because right now outside of the 1st round we’ve got Soderblom that’s played NHL games and that’s it.
Time will tell and I truly hope I'm wrong. And it's not that I think Johansson or someone like Wallinder are bad by any means, just not as good as this sub would have you think. I watched a decent bit of them in GR and Edvinsson just looks far and away better than any other Dmen on the that team. That's what makes me think Johansson still is not ready for the NHL.
Future considerations suggests something else is going on with SJ. I’m praying it is with Holl
They never had any intention of letting Johansson play. I'm surprised they even gave him a contract.
An with that defense lol Wow that's fucking terrible.
Why do we keep adding bottom pair defenseman when we have a prospect system full of these guys…
Like who?
Holl/Chairot/Maata come to mind
He mentioned prospects though.
“Why do we keep adding bottom pair defenseman” I named all the bottom pair defenseman lol
My response was to the guy who said we had prospects that are as good. So I ask who? Nothing about bottom pair.
ahh yes. noted prospects
I like it as a straight up Ghost replacement. I wasn't interested in any long-term commitment to him, so this is a plus. Not gonna say anything about the overall construction of the D core because that cannot be the whole picture right now. If it is, we have a problem, but we're not there yet.
Another Lefty???? Why?!?!?
Username checks out
Lmao
Walman shipped away + Ghost taking a walk
Ghost often played on the right so hopefully someone else can now
Only explanation is that the right handed shots got absurd pay days.
Finally Simon Will be penciled into the defense. Detroit defense just got that much better with Simon arrival. Now to get rid of one of chiarot or holl please.
Just watched some highlights to refresh my memory and I totally forgot he was teammates with Kane before. Not that says anything, but still an interesting tidbit.
+35 Last year. If the Trouba trade comes through our defense will be fucking insaneeeeeeeeeee.
Middling = fucking insaneeeeeew
It will be insaneeeeeeeelyaverage
So why didn't we just keep Walman again?
Well this dude is cheaper and equally as good, if not better.
This guy is way better than Walman and probably not lazy either.
Dude can't find his own zone, better facilitator than Walman but not better.
Nice.
Ghost replacement for cheaper. He’s more defense and less offense but that’s what we need
Thought we were getting Trouba?
I don't like it.
Man, given that Ghost just signed for 3.6 for 3 years in Carolina, I’m kind of annoyed by this now.
What can we expect with Gustafsson? Less offense than Ghost but more fundamentally solid?
I have no strong feelings one way or the other. Seems like we got him cheap though.
We have Ghost at home.
played with kane and cat already too. nice
Better than overpaying Ghost
So much for Johansson.
I think this is a good signing. To me this is better than Trouba. Less money, better stats. Only downside is that he doesn't bring that physicality...also I guess that he is a lefty.
You guys are excited about another 30+ year old meh defenseman? Is this how far we have fallen? Still failing to see the need of offloading a 2nd round pick for cap space.
We can dwell on that 2nd rd pick or we can look at it like: - Out: Walman and Gibson - In: Gustafsson and Kiiskinen The 2nd rounder would've been nice to keep but we didnt have it to begin with and to me we are better. Edvinsson replaces Walman and Gustafsson replaces Ghostisbehere. Feels like an overall improvement...could be wrong ofc
This. Stevie average pulls off another nothing move. Year 6 and this team still looks like we are missing the playoffs
I don't think anyone is excited
Keep hearing he’s our ghost replacement. We really gonna see this guy on PP1 over Mo? I can see him maybe being the PP2 guy. But Mo gonna offer a ton more than this guy on the PP.
I don't get this one, another LD. He has offensive skills but we're back to 5 LD.
Imo, that's not more important than just getting good players. Would you have have a lesser player but is RD?
I wouldn't call him good
Regardless, getting a lesser guy just because of RD is probably not the way to go.
MAKE IT STOP WHAT ARE U DOING
Dude that’s such a cheap contract. No worries
U are right but now we have 5 LHD on the active roster not including the depth probably Grand Rapids bound guy we signed earlier. None of our guys are buyout candidates on the left side these aren’t making sense
Still lots of off season man.
To be fair, we heard that last year, we didn't move anyone to make room, and we barely saw Ed when most of the year we were screaming for call ups because our D sucked.
Collect “talent” in the offseason and let them fight it out in the preseason. Worst case scenario is exposing guys to waivers on their way to the Griffins and where they can bury some of the cap hit.
Its not really that easy, if Yzerman keeps doing that very soon no one will want to sign here.
That’s pretty much how every NHL team operates. It’s the competitive part of competitive sports.
.5PPG D man that can run the power play for 2M thats solid
Rags fan here. This contract is honestly a steal for you guys. He's a solid d man enjoy him