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Red Wings Player Grades: The Forgotten and Unfortunate

By Alex Faber

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - FEBRUARY 20: Mathias Brome #86 of the Detroit Red Wings scores his first career NHL goal during the second period past Sergei Bobrovsky #72 of the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena on February 20, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MICHIGAN - FEBRUARY 20: Mathias Brome #86 of the Detroit Red Wings scores his first career NHL goal during the second period past Sergei Bobrovsky #72 of the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena on February 20, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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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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