GLENDALE, AZ - OCTOBER 22: (L-R) Tomas Holmstrom #96, Niklas Kronwall #55, Henrik Zetterberg #40, Chris Osgood #30, Nicklas Lidstrom #5 and Pavel Datsyuk #13 of the Detroit Red Wings stand attended for the National Anthem during the NHL game against the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena on October 22, 2009 in Glendale, Arizona. The Coyotes defeated the Red Wings 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Detroit Red Wings have utterly mishandled the Jonatan Berggren situation
The Detroit Red Wings have dropped the ball with Jonatan Berggren. They have handled this situation poorly and its going to come back to bite them in the long run.
The Detroit Red Wings have gone out and assigned Jonatan Berggren to the Grand Rapids Griffins. After yet another cup of coffee with the Red Wings, he was demoted from the NHL level. Honestly, it’s frustrating to watch Berggren get shafted like this. It also brings me to believe the end of the line is coming.
I’ve been higher on him for a couple of years now. After 2022-23, I thought he would become a bottom-six fixture. Frankly, I thought he would play alongside Joe Veleno or Michael Rasmussen and start to get his sea legs under him. Sure, those three names do not have the making of a dominant force, but it really felt like Jonatan Berggren had a spot to grow and develop with the Red Wings.
But instead, the Red Wings find themselves in a spot where Berggren has been pushed out of Detroit. To an extent, Detroit has forced its hand with Berggren. He’s got to be disgruntled, whether he’s showing it or not, but the trade rumors circled pre-deadline, and the Red Wings never pulled something off.
It seems like this situation has not been handled very well. Detroit dropped the ball a little, but given that they added in Patrick Kane, it became even harder to see where Berggren could fit with this roster. Detroit called up Berggren and gave him another teaser of games, but it’s just another one of those situations where they missed the boat.
Detroit Red Wings have mishandled the Jonatan Berggren situation.
Berggren was demoted to start the 2023-24 season due to his waiver-exempt status. Now, the Red Wings are doing the same thing, manipulating his service time like teams do in baseball, in a way. They narrowly keep Berggren as a waiver-exempt player. Per the WIIM piece on Berggren’s assignment, he has just one more game before he loses that waiver-exempt status.
