October 16, 2025 | 1:56pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

RED WINGS LOOKING TO MOVE DEFENCEMEN

Erik Gustafsson, defenceman

The Detroit Red Wings have a surplus of defencemen on the roster and GM Steve Yzerman is started to explore the market to see which veteran rearguards may be appealing to other clubs.

With the emergence of some of rookie blueliner Axel Sandin Pellikka, and youngsters Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson and Jacob Bernard-Docker eating up ice time, players like Travis Hamonic and Erik Gustafsson are finding themselves on the outside looking in.

Gustafsson, 33, was loaned to Grand Rapids of the AHL on Saturday, while the 35-year-old Hamonic has only skated in one of Detroit’s first four games this season.

During Wednesday’s “DFO Rundown Insider Edition” episode with TFP’s David Pagnotta and Irfaan Gaffar, Pagnotta reported that the Wings evaluating their options in the trade market.

“There is some talk that the Wings are looking at and are open to moving some of their defencemen, and I think there’s mutual interest there from the player side of things,” Pagnotta said, referencing Gustafsson and Hamonic

“Those are a couple of veteran pieces, different type of defencemen, but veteran pieces that they brought in. And it doesn’t look like there’s much room for some of these guys. I think they’ve started to explore that possibility of moving them or at least letting everybody know that there’s some availability there with respect to those guys.”

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Both Gustafsson and Hamonic are playing on expiring contracts – Gustafsson has a $2 million cap hit at the NHL level, while Hamonic’s hit is $1 million.

“They’ve got a bunch of different pieces that they’re willing to explore on,” Pagnotta said. “But because of the plethora of guys on that backend, don’t be surprised to hear guys like Hamonic and Gustafsson’s name out there, especially in the next little bit.”