Detroit Red Wings: Top 3 free agents to consider in 2020

2. ErikGustafsson

The Red Wings largest need this offseason is their blue line. Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley, and Cody Goloubef will all be unrestricted free agents this summer. Madison Bowey will be a restricted free agent, but there’s a solid chance he could be non-tendered because of his $1 million cap hit.

Detroit needs to upgrade their blueline quite a bit this summer. They’ll likely add Dennis Cholowski to the blueline full-time, but they still need two more defensemen. Ideally, Moritz Seider should spent at least one more season in the AHL, so the Red Wings probably need to add two defensemen.

The first one they should be looking at is Erik Gustafsson of the Calgary Flames. He’s coming off a less than stellar contract year, during which he put up 29 points in 62 games split between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Flames. That’s quite a step down from his 2018-19 season, during which he put up 60 points in 79 games.

Still, Gustafsson is a very capable offensive defenseman. The Red Wings blueline lacks talent like that. He likely won’t command an overly expensive contract, so the Red Wings should keep an eye on his market because they could get a potential bargain with him. Gustafsson would be great to add on a three or four year deal.