Jets Reassign David Gustafsson

Oct. 10: Gustafsson cleared waivers and will head to the AHL, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Oct. 9: The Jets will place forward David Gustafsson on waivers today, head coach Scott Arniel said (via Murat Ates of The Athletic). He’ll be designated as a non-roster player in the interim to make room for Jonathan Toews, who was placed on injured reserve at the beginning of the week but is being activated before tonight’s home opener. It’s the first time in Gustafsson’s seven-year career in North America that he’s been exposed to the wire.

Winnipeg could have easily ferried waiver-exempt prospects Parker Ford or Brad Lambert to AHL Manitoba instead, so seeing them instead risk losing Gustafsson on waivers is a notable development. Neither Ford nor Lambert is projected to be in tonight’s lineup, but they’ve now both broken camp with the Jets in earnest alongside fellow youngster Nikita Chibrikov.

Gustafsson, 25, has been a sound two-way depth piece but never developed offensively as Winnipeg hoped for when selecting him in the second round of the 2018 draft. He’s never pushed his way above a 13th/14th forward role and has only averaged 25 appearances per year over his six NHL campaigns. He’s been a non-factor on the scoresheet as a result, never scoring more than three goals or seven points in a season. Over the last three years, only 13 forwards with at least 100 games played have produced a lower points per game than Gustafsson’s 0.157 clip.

Of course, no one will produce many points when their ice time is as limited as Gustafsson’s is. He averaged 8:59 per game last year, and that’s 11 seconds above his career average. He does carry value as a fourth-line fill-in down the middle due to his faceoff acumen, boasting a 51.2% success rate in 689 career trips to the dot. He also had impressive possession impacts last season, controlling 51.0% of shot attempts at even strength despite 74.4% of his zone starts coming in the defensive end.

If he clears waivers, he’ll head to Manitoba. He hasn’t seen AHL ice since recording three assists in six games on a conditioning stint in the 2023-24 season. His last full-time assignment to the Moose was in 2021-22, when he put together a respectable 15-15–30 scoring line in 47 games.