Andrew Gibson signing his ELC is exciting, but don’t expect him to suit up for the Griffins anytime soon
Find out why Red Wings and Griffins fans will have to wait a bit to see Gibson in a Griffins jersey.
Last week the Detroit Red Wings signed prospect Andrew Gibson to an entry level contract beginning with the 2024-25 season. Gibson, one of three 2023 2nd round picks of the Red Wings, is a 6’4” 206lb right-shot defenseman fresh off a deep playoff run with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL. The organization also announced that Gibson will report to the club’s AHL affiliate, Grand Rapids Griffins, on an amateur tryout for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. In this article, I’ll breakdown what type of player Gibson is and what the signing means for him and the team in the near and medium term.
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Gibson is a big hulking defenseman with excellent skating and mobility, a hallmark of what Steve Yzerman looks for in a defensive prospect. Gibson played a leading role with the Greyhounds tallying 12 goals, 32 assists for 44 points in 68 regular season games. He was a +36 which led his team by a wide margin. Gibson is a defensive defenseman who’s a shot blocking machine and the first player over the boards when the team has to kill a penalty. His work has not gone unnoticed as Western Conference coaches in the OHL voted Gibson tied for the best shot blocker and third best defensive defenseman in the conference. Despite the defensive reputation, Gibson made strides in his offensive game this season, showing that there is more offense in his game than some may have given him credit for when he was drafted. The 0.65 points per game rate he put up in 2023-24 is a big step up from the 0.47 rate from the year before. A deeper dive on who Gibson is as a prospect will come when I release my top draft prospects rankings later this summer.
The Gibson signing is an exciting development, especially considering how thin Red Wings were on the right side of their defense on both the NHL club and in its prospect pool. Unfortunately, this positive development has led to some misleading information that must be clarified.
Some Red Wings fans have suggested that Gibson should get some playing time in the 2023-24 Calder Cup playoffs, while others have expressed their excitement for Gibson to be a regular contributor for the Griffins in 2024-25. The former scenario is incredibly unlikely to happen while the latter simply can’t happen. Fans should not expect to see Gibson in the Griffins lineup for quite some time – not now or next season.
Despite joining the Griffins on an amateur tryout, Gibson remains a longshot to play in the 2023-24 playoffs. The Griffins currently have 11 defensemen on their roster which includes lefties: Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson, William Wallinder, Eemil Viro, Radim Šimek, and Shai Buium, and righties: Antti Tuomisto, Wyatt Newpower, Josiah Didier, Brogan Rafferty, and Gibson himself. Since Grand Rapids will only ice six or seven defensemen in a game, it means a handful of good defenders will be watching from the press box. Given what’s at stake for the team, a deep playoff run, it’s incredibly unlikely Head Coach Dan Watson will deviate from the players who got the team to this point, especially for a 19-year-old who hasn’t played in a professional game yet. This is the right decision as players like Edvinsson, Šimek, and Rafferty have all played NHL games before, while players like Johansson, Wallinder, Tuomisto and Dider have been key contributors all season. If Grand Rapids fails to make a deep playoff run, it won’t be because they missed Gibson in the lineup, regardless of how promising he is as a prospect.
Another misleading claim made about the Gibson signing is that he will be a regular in the lineup for the Griffins in the 2024-25 season. This scenario simply can’t happen. Due to the NHL – CHL Player Transfer Agreement, Gibson’s only options for the 2024-25 season are in the NHL or the OHL. The agreement, which has been around for years, and has been highly criticized, requires the NHL to assign signed 18 and 19-year-old players to the CHL if they do not crack the NHL roster. An exception is if a player has already accrued four CHL seasons. Since Gibson has only played three OHL seasons, and is 19-years-old, he is ineligible to play in the AHL, or any other league, next season. Another exception would be if Gibson has no commitments in the OHL, like if the team misses or is eliminated from the playoffs, then he would be allowed to play for the Griffins. This exception is why Gibson is eligible to play for the Griffins in the 2023-24 playoffs, but as I noted above, that’s incredibly unlikely due to the roster dynamics in Grand Rapids.
Some might wonder why the Red Wings would sign Gibson to a contract that begins in 2024-25 if he can’t even play in the AHL in that season, and it’s almost guaranteed he doesn’t make the Red Wings roster. Fans can rest assured that the team will not burn a year of Gibson’s ELC keeping him in the OHL as his contract is eligible to be slid for one year effectively pushing the contract start to the 2025-26 season.
Overall, Red Wings fans should still be excited about Andrew Gibson as a prospect. He fills a need for the Red Wings in their prospect pool, a big right-shot defensive defenseman, but fans will just have to wait a little bit longer to see him in a Griffins jersey. There were some rules discussed briefly in this article that relate to the NHL – CHL Player Transfer agreement and the NHL’s CBA (contract slide). These are factors that frequently affect all NHL teams and will be broken down in depth in future articles, so stay tuned.