{"id":138979,"date":"2023-07-01T20:38:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T00:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=138979"},"modified":"2023-07-01T20:38:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T00:38:17","slug":"erik-gustafsson-signs-one-year-deal-with-the-new-york-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/01\/erik-gustafsson-signs-one-year-deal-with-the-new-york-rangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik Gustafsson Signs One-Year Deal with the New York Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Rangers<\/a> announced today that they have signed defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gustaer02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erik Gustafsson<\/a> to a one-year contract. The deal will pay him $850k for 2023-24, a slight increase from his previous one-year agreement with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/capitals\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Capitals<\/a>, valued at $800k. After a brief stint with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/leafs\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>, who traded a first-round pick and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandira01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rasmus Sandin<\/a> to acquire him at the 2023 trade deadline, the 31-year-old from Nynashamm, Sweden, will suit up for his seventh NHL team since debuting in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Erik Gustafsson is headed to the Big Apple. \ud83d\uddfd <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1wl0EFW9dB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1wl0EFW9dB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sportsnet\/status\/1675260055111835648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Gustafsson Inks New Contract<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Originally drafted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/oilers\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a> (93rd overall) in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Gustafsson has already played for six teams, including two stints with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/blackhawks\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>. Last year he played 70 games with the Capitals and Leafs, collecting seven goals, 35 assists, and 42 points with a plus-nine rating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Statistically, Gustafsson&#8217;s best campaign came in 2018-19, collecting career highs in games played (79), goals (17), assists (43), and points (60). Although he has not reached double-digit goals since that year, he has assisted on more than 30 goals in the last two seasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Impact of Gustafsson&#8217;s Contract<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As a top-four defenseman, fans should expect Gustafsson to play around 19 minutes a night. Outside of his outstanding season in 2018-19, he has yet to collect more than 63 blocks or 86 hits, meaning he&#8217;s not playing a hard-nosed defensive style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/rangers\/news\/peter-laviolette-named-rangers-head-coach\/c-344849972\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new head coach Peter Laviolette<\/a> may request a little more out of him with more shot blocking or hits, Gustafsson can compensate for any shortcomings by contributing even more on the offensive side. Even though he&#8217;s only plus-1 in his career, he did finish 2022-23 plus-nine, the first time he registered a plus rating since his rookie campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As a low-cost option in the market, the Rangers improved their back end by bringing in a guy who can play offensively and be responsible on the blue line. Even though New York already has defensemen like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/foxad01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Fox<\/a> and K&#8217;Andre Miller to rack up points, adding a well-traveled veteran who loves to act as a set-up guy can help. Players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zibanmi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mika Zibanejad<\/a>, Artemi Panarin, and Chris Kreider will appreciate his presence in the lineup to keep the team competitive in the Metropolitan Division.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: \u00a0Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Rangers announced today that they have signed defenseman Erik Gustafsson to a one-year contract. The deal will pay him $850k for 2023-24, a slight increase from his previous one-year agreement with the Washington Capitals, valued at $800k. After a brief stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who traded a first-round pick and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4655,"featured_media":139087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4547,34,4548],"tags":[3669,6259,1547],"class_list":["post-138979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-erik-gustafsson","tag-new-york-rangers-news","tag-peter-laviolette"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4655"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}