I think the complaints are more symptomatic of a fanbase that is fed up with a team sliding into irrelevancy for 10 years with no attempt at rebuilding. Ericsson's contract and place on the roster is just an easy target for that ire.
Ericsson worked hard, never really took a game off, but a lot of the Holland/Wing slappies are on here making it out like he was a solid second-pair guy in his prime. He absolutely was not. I don't blame the guy for taking that contract and roster spot and trying to do his best in the position. But let's not kid ourself that he was an bona-fide second pair defenseman. He was at best a 6-7 guy who lucked into a team that has been unable to stock more than three real NHL d-men on the roster at any one time for more than a decade.
I'll sum it up this way: Ken Holland has paid Jonathan Ericsson more than a million dollars per goal since he came up to the NHL.
Ok? How is that stat relevant? Ericsson wasn't an offensive defenseman.
Jonathan Ericsson Stats | Hockey-Reference.com
And if you look at it... Check 10-11 to 13-14. 18:50 ATOI, 17:05 ATOI, 21:19 ATOI, 21:15 ATOI. He was not a negative in any of those years. If he was some black hole like you want to paint him as being, he'd be super overmatched and his stats would look like a Rasmus Ristolainen nightmare. Hell, 12-13 the lockout year, 13 points in 45 games is actually pretty decent for a stay at home defensive D.
When Ericsson WOULD have been a solid second-pair guy in his prime, he got hotrodded up to the top pair to play with Kronner. We never got to see Jonathan Ericsson at the optimal level for his skill because by the time they moved him down the lineup he was starting to break down in a big way. In his prime he was utilized on the top pairing (in a bad bit of strategy)
Seriously, Ericsson was bad by the end of his career. But going back and acting like he was always some schlub that was lucky to grace the NHL ice is just disrespectful and simply not true. Yeah, 6x4.25 was too much for him. That was a bad deal. But in that case, the Wings were trying to do something like Nashville with Josi or Edmonton with Klefbom or New Jersey with Larsson. You overpay a guy at inception of contract with the hope/thought that he grows into more and it'll become a bargain.
Ericsson signed that 6x4.25 contract coming off of his 12-13 season and partway through his 13-14 season (11/2013). In those seasons he did the following
45 games, 13 points, 21:19 ATOI
48 games, 11 points, 21:15 ATOI.
He was also playing a workable top pairing with Kronner. Then he started tailing off as injuries started to pile up after that. Was it a bad bet on Ericsson? Hindsight says that it was. But at the time, even if I didn't like the contract, necessarily, I could see what they were doing.
But no, let's just keep ****ing on a guy's epitaph of his career because he got paid too much money for too long.