Monday: After the team’s back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames this weekend, CapFriendly is reporting that the Red Wings have loaned Berggren back to the Griffins.
Friday: Earlier today, it was reported that Detroit Red Wings forward, Robby Fabbri, would miss the next four weeks with a lower-body injury. As Fabbri will now land on the injured reserved for the team, the Red Wings announced that they have recalled forward Jonatan Berggren from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
This confirms an earlier report from Kevin Weekes of ESPN, who indicated that Berggren would likely replace Fabbri once the injury news became public. After spending most of last year in the NHL with Detroit, Berggren will get the opportunity to stay with the team long-term, after surprisingly not making the team out of training camp earlier this month.
Becoming one of the sneakier draft choices made towards the end of the Ken Holland era for the Red Wings, Berggren has excelled at every level since being drafted by Detroit in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. In his last season playing for Skellefteå AIK of the SHL back during the 2020-21 season, Berggren impressed with 12 goals and 33 assists in 49 games played. Next season, making his professional debut in North America, Berggren would score 21 goals and 43 assists in 70 games for the Griffins, leading the team in points during his rookie campaign.
Last year, after getting off to a point-per-game start in the AHL, Berggren would get the call-up to Detroit, staying with the team for the rest of the season (minus a week stint in the AHL in February). In his rookie season, Berggren would score 15 goals and 13 assists in 67 games played, relatively modest numbers in hindsight, but it was good for ninth on the team in scoring.
Coming into this year, Berggren would have seemed like a relatively easy choice to make the Red Wings roster out of camp, but over the offseason, the team added six new forwards into the mix through trades and free agency, as well as the return of both Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen to start the season. Although not a star-studded roster by any means, Detroit has become a relatively deep team over the last few seasons.