Red Wings Player Grades: The Forgotten and Unfortunate

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Save for the massive Anthony Mantha trade at the trade deadline, 2021 was a relatively forgettable season for the Detroit Red Wings. A rebuilding team with plenty of talent just outside of the NHL. Let’s refresh our memory and take a look at a few of the players fans will be hard-pressed to remember a few years from now.

Mathias Brome

2021 Statline

Games Played: 26

Goals: 1

Assists: 1

+/-: -9

Preseason Projections

Borderline NHLer, possible AHLer.

2021 Season in a Nutshell

At 26 years old, Mathias Brome finally made his NHL debut. Expectations were there, but not ridiculously high. Unfortunately, he looked absolutely snakebitten for a majority of his time on the main roster. Playing during perhaps the worst stretch of hockey Detroit had all year, Brome didn’t get much help on the ice, illustrated by the rough -9 plus/minus goal differential. It didn’t help that he seemed cursed not to score. Brome had a bevy of chances throughout his time and just failed to finish. It was a frustrating stretch, as he was by no means as bad as the stat sheet indicates. When Brome finally notched that first NHL goal, his excitement was palpable.

However, Brome failed to do it again. As the season progressed, he started to float between the taxi squad and a healthy scratch. By the halfway point of the season, Brome had essentially disappeared from the lineup. Even as injuries piled up near the end of the season, Brome could not find a way back to the lineup. Soon after the season ended, it was announced that Brome signed with a team in Sweden.

They Said It

“I like Mathias, he tries to do it right. “The NHL is hard. It’s hard to produce offense, it’s hard when you’re not big or super-fast. But I think he’s gotten chances, and with chances I think he’ll eventually score. My understanding is he started the Swedish Hockey League a similar (way), where he went a number of games without scoring, and all the sudden he popped a bunch. We’re hoping he starts to gain that confidence. But I like him, he tries to do the right things and he plays hard.”

-Jeff Blashill via Mlive

Final Grade

D+. I hate to give Mathias Brome a grade like this. I really do. Brome finally notching that first goal was one of the best (And underrated) moments of the season, you could feel the weight dissipate from his shoulders. However, Brome failed to make the roster. Expectations were not high whatsoever, but consider the facts in a vacuum: a player managed to only nab two points in 26 games, failed to make the roster after the midway point and was leapfrogged by a handful of younger players and veterans. Brome was a fun player and is a great guy, but his 2020-21 season cannot be viewed as anything but a failure.. Forward. Detroit Red Wings. MATHIAS BROME

Alex Biega

2021 Statline

Games Played:13

Goals: 0

Assists: 3

+/-: -1

Preseason Projection

AHL/Taxi Squad

2021 Season in a Nutshell

Alex Biega’s job this season was essentially to keep seats on the Taxi Squad warm. Unlike some of the other regulars of the taxi squad, Biega did not play one game in Grand Rapids. His sole purpose on the roster was to exist in case of injury.

After Jon Merrill and Patrik Nemeth were shipped off at the trade deadline, a position finally opened up for Biega. However, instead of playing on a regular defensive pairing, he typically acted as the seventh defensemen when Detroit went with the 11 forwards and seven defensemen scheme. When he finally became a regular, his presence on the ice made almost no difference. Biega managed to nab three assists, but other than that, 2021 was rather forgettable for the veteran defenseman.

Final Grade

INC. Of all the forgettable players, Alex Biega might be the least memorable. He only played thirteen games at the end of another losing season, just filling a gap in the lineup. One can’t truly grade a player that participated in so little games, but at this point we know what Biega is. He’s a backup at best and a borderline AHLer at worst. At 33, he might provide some veteran presence to the Grand Rapids Griffins blue line, but in Detroit, his time is finished.. Defenseman. Detroit Red Wings. ALEX BIEGA

Christian Djoos

2021 Statline

Games Played:

Goals: 2

Assists: 9

+/-: -13

Preseason Projection

Bottom pairing/backup defensemen

2021 Season in a Nutshell

Steve Yzerman picked up Christian Djoos on waivers from the Anaheim Ducks before the season started. In Djoos, Yzerman had yet another left-shot defensemen, except Djoos provided offensive upside that was lacking on the roster.

Djoos started off the season decently, finding a comfortable spot as one of the only competent power play quarterbacks on the team. However, Djoos lacked defensive competency through the first half of the season. For a coach like Jeff Blashill that preaches defensive perfection at the expense of offensive output, Djoos was not a great fit. As a result of the early defensive struggles, Djoos became a regular healthy scratch, replaced by defenseman more responsible on the back end.

However, as the season continued, Djoos got better defensively; he finished with a 47.9% CF%. But the stronger defense was not enough to break back in to the roster regularly, even after the trade deadline. He was surpassed by Gustav Lindstrom and Dennis Cholowski on most nights, and even Alex Biega on occasion. Soon after the season ended, Djoos left the NHL for the Swiss National League.

They Said It

“I think Christian has done a solid job. He’s kind of come as advertised. He’s a really good puck mover. He’s got really good poise with the puck. He’s a little different than what we have in a lot of ways on the back end. We have a lot of guys that are good defenders that are fine with the puck. He’s a really good passer, has good poise. I think he’s had fairly good smarts on the power play. I think he’s somebody that can help our power play be better. Overall, I’ve liked him.”

-Jeff Blashill via the Detroit Free Press

Final Grade

Defenseman. Detroit Red Wings. CHRISTIAN DJOOS. C-. The season wasn’t a success for Djoos. The problem wasn’t necessarily lack of talent; he provided an offensive option on the blue line and was, for the most part, competent defensively. The problem is, Djoos didn’t quite fit the Blashill scheme. Similar to Dennis Cholowski, he had trouble adjusting his style of play to a team so focused on offensive silence. For that, he became one of the team’s healthy scratches. Djoos can’t get anything above average on the grading scale, he didn’t regularly start. However, he was certainly better than some of the other warm bodies on the roster, and should be given some credit for providing a spark of offense early.

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