Erik Gustafsson was born in Sweden on March 14th 1992. He was born into a family of hockey with both his older brother Joakim and his younger brother Glenn picking up the sport.
Erik, worked his way up through the Swedish hockey system. He played with Djurgårdens IF, Djurgårdens junior teams and Frölunda HF in Sweden.
In his three seasons in the SHL he put up an impressive nine goals and 47 assists for 56 points in 146 games.
He caught the eye of the Edmonton Oilers scouting team, and was drafted in the fourth round 93rd overall.