There aren’t many holdovers from the Ken Holland era for the Detroit Red Wings. Even though the long-time General Manager is only six years removed from leading Detroit’s front office, Dylan Larkin, Michael Rasmussen, and Jonatan Berggren are the only three who have survived the transition to Steve Yzerman. Given that the former two already have concrete spots on the Red Wings’ roster moving forward, Berggren is gearing up for what could be a make-or-break season in HockeyTown.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Berggren was considered one of Detroit’s better prospects. The Red Wings selected the Uppsala, Sweden native with the 33rd overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft out of the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK program. It took a few years for Berggren to make the jump to professional hockey in his home country, but he capped it off with an impressive 12-goal, 45-point effort in 48 games for them in the 2020-21 SHL season.
Having a dire need for offense, the Red Wings brought Berggren overseas for the 2021-22 campaign, starting with their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. He rewarded Detroit for their confidence in his abilities, scoring 21 goals and 64 points in 70 games during his rookie season, finishing second in rookie scoring behind JJ Peterka, then of the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
Finishing as one of the worst offensive teams for the 2021-22 campaign, the Red Wings recalled Berggren for his NHL debut during the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately, despite a higher-than-normal shooting percentage and quality CorsiFor% at even strength, Berggren finished his rookie season with 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games with a -14 rating, averaging 13:28 of ice time per game.
Adding several forwards during the following offseason, Berggren quickly lost his spot on Detroit’s roster. He failed to make the team out of training camp and became the subject of trade rumors with the Red Wings looking to take a step toward contention. For some reason or another, no trade materialized, and Berggren finished the campaign with 24 goals and 56 points in 55 games at the AHL level, with another two goals and six points in 12 NHL contests.
The trade speculation regarding Berggren continued into the offseason before finally signing a one-year, $825K contract with the Red Wings a week before training camp. Unlike the previous campaign, he made the team out of camp and finished the 2024-25 season with 12 goals and 24 points in 75 games, averaging 12:59 of ice time per night. Although he had been known for his offense throughout his days as a prospect, Berggren was a defensive bright spot for Detroit last season, finishing with a 91.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength, one of the highest marks on the team considering his ATOI.
Still, with the Red Wings again looking to take a step toward contention, and Berggren becoming arbitration-eligible next offseason, his future in Detroit may rely on the quality of his 2025-26 campaign. Berggren acknowledged as much in a recent interview with team correspondent, Jonathan Mills, saying, “Last year was a good year for me. I feel like I got more opportunity after Todd [McLellan] became head coach, and I think I played better. This one-year deal is a prove-it-deal for me. I want to show what I can do.”
Putting more pressure on Berggren this season, Detroit has numerous forward prospects looking to make the full-time jump to the NHL level. Nate Danielson, Amadeus Lombardi, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, and Carter Mazur, to name a few, are pushing hard to get to the next level, and Berggren could be one of the first casualties.
There’s always a need for defensive-minded forwards at the NHL level. Still, there is a not-so-subtle expectation that Berggren will become more of an efficient point producer with the Red Wings. If he’s unable to do that this upcoming season, there’s a decent chance he’ll be removed from any of Detroit’s future planning.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.
Gladly trade him for Chinakhov
He has been given ample opportunity, time to move on.
$1.8 million one year contract, he’d better produce early or be gone either a trade or AHL. Feel badly he’s in a vise, but there has been some missed opportunities to show consistent NHL performance but has come up short so far.
What has become of Motte? Anyone know?
I wouldn’t say Rasmussen has a “concrete spot in the lineup”. And for Berggren’s ATOI he’s actually done pretty good and came up clutch quite a few times.
Agree.
These both are perfect examples on why this rebuild is taking forever. Both players are not part of future and blocking future players. Ras is the biggest player on the ice but doesn’t hit. He is useless.
At one time Berggren’s stock was pretty high. No longer the case. Not necessarily his fault. He needs to play with offensive guys not checkers. The Wings just haven’t been able to find the right combo with him. And they really dicked him over in the 23-24 season.
They should have moved him while his stock was high. He’s too good for the AHL. He dominates down there.
Rasmussen sucks. Period. He does nothing. They keep defending by saying he’s a good penalty killer, he’s a 200-foot player, blah-blah-blah. His roster spot needs to open up.
For some reason Rasmussen seems to play when he wants to. Maybe I’m just being too hard on him, but he has not really been a consistent go getter even at mid point level. At 25 he should be at his peak but that isn’t happening. Not sure he would be too good for AHL. While there played 45 games scoring 30 points. Maybe he should be in the AHL as he seems to be a better scorer there. Might be hard to deal off his contract that expires in 2028 but who knows, maybe get a Mr. Consistency in trade?
He sucks. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I would have rather had Austin Watson in the lineup more than Rasmussen. 3.2M per for Rasmussen? Yzerman has done a miserable job to date.
Yea I actually don’t hate that. Rasmussen just belongs on the 4th line somewhere in the league making $1M per. Soderblom needs to be in the lineup full time over Ras. Ras will have flashes at times where he plays good and other times will look like a guy who shouldn’t be on the roster.