The Washington Capitals continued their focus on defenseman after finding their goalies by signing Erik Gustafsson to a one year deal worth $800,000.
The 30 year old blue liner recorded 18 points in 59 games with the Chicago Blackhawks last season with three goals and 15 assists. The six foot, 197 pound defenseman ranked third among Chicago defensemen in points, second in power play points (4) and fourth in shots (79).
Gustafsson also represented Team Sweden at the 2022 World Championship, recording seven assists in eight games.
During the 2020-21 season, Gustafsson recorded 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) and 16:43 time on ice per game in 29 games with the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens.
The Nynashamn, Sweden native skated in 214 games with the Chicago Blackhawks from 2015-16 to 2019-20, producing a career high 60 points with 17 goals and 43 assists in 79 games in 2018-19.
Gustafsson was originally signed by the Blackhawks as a free agent on April 30, 2015. He has recorded 149 points in 309 career NHL games with 32 goals and 117 assists with Chicago, the Calgary Flames, Philadelphia, and Montreal. In 31 career playoff games, Gustafsson has registered eight points with one goal and seven assists and a +3 plus minus rating.
Now that we know a little more about what the Caps defense will look like compared to a few days ago when we did our first opening night lineup projection, let’s see what the pairs COULD look like now:
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-TvR
Gustafsson-Jensen
As you can see making the defensive pairings is still tricky. Gustafsson has a left handed shot and so does Matt Irwin and Lucas Johansen. So someone would have to draw a short straw to determine who would play on the right side of the third pairing.
Matt Irwin was re-signed earlier and Lucas Johansen was re-signed on the second day of the NHL Draft. It’s likely we’ll see a competition brewing for that seventh final spot.