Erik Gustafsson
Detroit Red Wings Defense
18 points, a minus-19, and a puck-moving defenceman on his eighth organisation.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | CHI | 41 | 0 | 14 | 14 | +11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 0.0 | 15:27 |
| 2017-18 | CHI | 35 | 5 | 11 | 16 | +1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 7.0 | 18:33 |
| 2018-19 | CHI | 79 | 17 | 43 | 60 | -6 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 160 | 10.6 | 22:35 |
| 2019-20 | CHI/CGY | 66 | 6 | 23 | 29 | -9 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 5.8 | 20:23 |
| 2020-21 | PHI/MTL | 29 | 1 | 11 | 12 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 3.0 | 16:42 |
| 2021-22 | CHI | 59 | 3 | 15 | 18 | -4 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 3.8 | 16:13 |
| 2022-23 | WSH/TOR | 70 | 7 | 35 | 42 | +9 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 122 | 5.7 | 19:46 |
| 2023-24 | NYR | 76 | 6 | 25 | 31 | +3 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 93 | 6.5 | 17:24 |
| 2024-25 | DET | 60 | 2 | 16 | 18 | -19 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 3.0 | 16:19 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 515 | 47 | 193 | 240 | -15 | 163 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 786 | 6.0 | 18:31 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
2 goals and 16 assists in 60 games for 18 points, minus-19, on 16:19 a night.
51.1 per cent at five-on-five, the 63rd percentile — the best share on the blue line — and on-ice goals of 21-30 against an expected 33-31. That is 12 goals of finishing and goaltending going the wrong way, and the minus-19 is largely fiction.
The Finesse Game
The puck movement is the reason he keeps getting jobs. He escapes pressure, moves it early, and has a genuine power-play instinct — 16 assists in 60 games in a third-pair role is a fair return.
67 shots and 2 goals; the release does not threaten anybody and he has never scored much from the point despite the reputation.
The Physical Game
6 feet and 190, and light. He does not clear a crease, does not win board battles, and is the second man to most pucks in his own corner.
20 penalty minutes over 60 games. The defensive work is the whole reason he has moved so often.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, eight organisations in eleven seasons, and a career of being signed for the power play and released when the goals against pile up.
At 33 the projection is unchanged. The minus-19 is not a fair verdict — the chance share was the best on the blue line — and the pattern of eight clubs is.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 870 minutes
- Expected goals
- 51.1%
- 63rd pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.9%
- 73rd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 21 for, 30 against. Expected: 32.7 and 31.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 57 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 61 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 870 minutes at five-on-five
- Justin Hollnow STL64%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- DET took 48.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 51.1% — 2.9 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 870 minutes at five-on-five — 41st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Holl | 52.6% | 47.8% | 50.6% |
| Alex DeBrincat | 51.8% | 50.8% | 51.1% |
| Patrick Kane | 49.9% | 51.6% | 48.0% |
52.6% together, 47.8% for him apart and 50.6% for Holl apart. He was worse away from Holl, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Holl did.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
116 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 55 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 65% from beyond forty.