Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson has agreed to play for Vita Hasten, a lower-level Swedish club, for at least a few games this month.

"It feels great to be able to help the parent club now,'' Ericsson said in a story translated from Swedish that was posted on the team's Web site. "I do not know how many games it will be, we follow the league's development and take it day by day. I will at least play home games on (October) 17, 21 and 24. Then we'll see what happens.''

After skating with several teammates Friday in Troy, Ericsson indicated he was getting anxious to play somewhere during the NHL lockout.

"We're not doing this to practice, the fun part is to play games,'' Ericsson said. "We're missing it already. I can't even imagine how it's going to feel if it's going to continue like this in two more months.''

The Swedish Elite League's reluctance to accept locked out NHL players who don't commit for the rest of the season benefits the lower Swedish leagues and other European leagues.

Ericsson doesn't feel like he is taking somebody's job, noting he was on the other end during the last NHL lockout in 2004-05, when he was still playing in Sweden.

“I was one of the young guys in the Swedish league that had to step aside for two NHL defensemen, so I know what it's like,'' Ericsson said. "I understood the whole process then. It's not like I was sour about not playing because I understood teams want to bring in the big guys, to get the crowd going and compete for a spot in the (playoffs).''

When NHL players came over to Sweden during the previous lockout, Ericsson's ice time with Sodertalje SK was cut, so he asked to be loaned to a team in the second division (Huddinge IK).

"It worked for me, I really liked that and got a lot of responsibility,'' he said.

Ericsson, 28, will be the sixth Red Wing to play in Europe during the lockout, joining Pavel Datsyuk (CSKA Moscow in Russia), Valtteri Filppula (Jokerit in Finland), Jakub Kindl (Pardubice in the Czech Republic), Jan Mursak (HDD Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia) and Damien Brunner for (EV Zug in Switzerland).

More than 100 NHL players have joined European clubs since the lockout began on Sept. 15. Many more will follow if the season is canceled.

“I don't know when the deadline is for when they're going to shut down the whole season, if it's going to be in December or January,'' Ericsson said. "If that's going to happen then I think a lot of (European) teams are going to bring in players for the rest of the season because then it's going to be playoffs and it's going to be huge for teams to go all the way. Then I think it's going to be easier to get in, especially in the Swedish league.''

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