Scouting the Detroit Red Wings: Jonathan Ericsson

September 2, 11:27 PMDetroit Red Wings ExaminerMike Mouat

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Jonathan Ericsson

Today's profile: Jonathan Ericsson

Height: 6'4"
Weight: 206
Birthdate: March 2, 1984 (25 years old)
Position: Defense
Shoots: Left
Uniform #: 52
Contract status: Signed through 2010-11
Salary Cap Figure: $900,000
Salary in 2009-10: $900,000

2008-09

Jonathan Ericsson made the most of his late season call up to replace the injured Andreas Lilja and earned a spot in the Red Wings top six defensemen. In 19 regular season games he scored one goal and three assists for four points, had 15 penalty minutes, 25 shots and averaged 17:40 of ice time per game. He also blocked 12 shots and dished out 28 hits. As the season came to a close, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told Helen St. James of the Detroit Free Press "It's great to have a kid in the minors that can step up and do what he can do and the size he can do it with and the tempo of the game he has. We're impressed with him. He makes our team better." To top it off he played better in the playoffs averaging 18:59 of ice time per game, scored four goals, including one game-winner, and four assists for eight points in 22 games. He also had 25 minutes in penalties was +9, had 33 shots on goal, blocked 19 shots and dished out 39 hits. He missed one game in the playoffs after having an emergency appendectomy.

Ericsson is another example of the The Red Wings ability to identify a talent late in the draft and let them develop them into an NHL player (Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom). Ericsson was the very last player selected, 291st, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He has played the past two seasons in Grand Rapids where the Red Wings have kept a close eye on his progress and were rewarded for their patience last spring. Between the regular season and the playoffs Ericsson played 41 games for Detroit, scored five goals and seven assists, was +8, had 40 penalty minutes, 67 hits and 41 blocked shots. Extrapolated over a full NHL season he would have been the team leader in penalty minutes, second in hits and the fourth highest scoring defenseman. Coach Babcock used Ericsson on the penalty kill giving him between 1:44 and 1:57 in ice time per game in shorthanded situations to take advantage of his size and ability to clear the front of the net. Ericsson displayed a mean streak the Wings lacked in their roster when he dropped the gloves against Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference semifinals series. 2009-10 being his first full season in the NHL it will be interesting to see if Ericsson continues his quick progression and establishes himself as the Wings fifth defenseman, or if there will be some bumps along the learning curve. He provides the Wings with needed size and toughness along the blueline, especially if Lilja is unable to return from his injury.

Throughout the summer I have be profiling the 2009-10 Detroit Red Wings players in comprehensive scouting reports, please follow the links below and check out all the players' profiles.

Be sure to check out the slide show below for some action shots of Ericsson from last season.

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Other scouting reports

• Dan Cleary  Pavel Datsyuk  Kris Draper  Patrick Eaves  Jonathan Ericsson  Valtteri Filppula  Johan Franzen  Darren Helm  Tomas Holmstrom  Niklas Kronwall   Brett Lebda   Ville Leino  Nicklas Lidstrom  Andreas Lilja  Kirk Maltby  Derek Meech  Chris Osgood  Brian Rafalski  Brad Stuart  Jason Williams  Henrik Zetterberg