The Montreal Canadiens lost Victor Mete on waivers today, but they’re bringing in some more defensive depth. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the Canadiens have acquired Erik Gustafsson from the Philadelphia Flyers. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that the Canadiens will send a 2022 seventh-round pick, while the Flyers are retaining 50% of Gustafsson’s remaining cap hit.
It might seem amazing that a defenseman who scored 17 goals and 60 points in the 2018-19 season could be grabbed for a seventh-round pick, but that’s just how poorly Gustafsson’s defense is regarded around the league. There’s no doubt he can be an offensive catalyst, but he has played his way out of the lineup for three different teams now with his inconsistent ability in his own end.
Luckily, the Canadiens won’t be asking Gustafsson to be playing heavy minutes given how the depth chart looks right now. Instead, he’ll come in along with the recently acquired Jon Merrill to give the bottom-pair rotation a different look or fill in for any injuries.
a polarizing player to be sure
wait that’s really it?
This is truly addition by subtraction. This guy is a brutal defenseman. Wait until he coughs up the puck in the defensive zone a couple of times a night for the Cs. The Flyers have had some bad defensemen; this guy makes their top 5.
“There is no Erik Gustafsson.”
link to youtube.com
And, “There is no Eric Guftason!”
;)
I had always said that the Hawks needed to play Gus as a winger, especially how dreadfully bad their defensive core was in 2019. If nothing else, you keep his offensive talent and you get extra help in the defensive end.