Red Wings Grades: The Young Defensemen
As the Detroit Red Wings continue to trudge through its difficult rebuild, one of the things that has kept fans watching has been the development of prospects and young players. Let’s take a look at how a few members of Detroit’s young defensive core fared in the 2020-21 season.
Filip Hronek
2021 Statline
Games Played: 56
Goals: 2
Assists: 24
+-: -18
Preseason Projection
Top pairing defenseman
2021 Season in a Nutshell
Filip Hronek had a season that is a bit tough to analyze. On paper, it is actually one of the best seasons a defenseman has had for years in Detroit. His 26 points beat out Dylan Larkin, Adam Erne and Filip Zadina for most on the Red Wings. Analytics are seemingly on Hronek’s side, too. His CF% was improved from 2019-2020 as he moved the needle to 48.3%.
In a data driven world, it is hard to bring in the eye test into any sort of analytical dive into a player’s season. However, I’d venture to say that a majority of fans would agree that Hronek did not quite have the season that his stats show.
Some of the stats are a bit misleading: 17 of his 24 assists were secondary and both goals were empty netters. Now, the empty net goals should not be weighed the same as a regular goal, but it does show perhaps Hronek’s best attribute this year: reliability. The coaching staff heavily relied on Hronek this year – not only did he play in all 56 games, his average time on ice was 23:23 (Per hockey-reference.com)
They Said It
“He’s been forced to really trial by fire and he’s been thrown into the mix, and it’s hard to do. You don’t have a veteran defenseman who can carry you as you make some mistakes, and he’s had to sink or swim on a nightly basis. (But) enough nights, he’s swam.”
-Jeff Blashill via the Detroit News
Final Grade
Dennis Cholowski
2021 Statline
Games Played: 16
Goals: 1
Assists: 3
+-: -1
Preseason Projection
Top Grand Rapids defenseman, borderline NHLer
2021 Season in a Nutshell
Dennis Cholowski’s past few years have been a rollercoaster with the Red Wings. He’s been back and forth between the Wings and the Griffins. He’s come close to cracking the roster a few times, but his defensive lapses keep reappearing. This year was much of the same. Cholowski spent more than half the season in Grand Rapids, billed as their best “offensive defenseman” and acting as the quarterback of the powerplay, scoring three goals and notching seven assists during that time.
After the trade deadline, Cholowski finally got the call to Detroit. In 13 games, Cholowski managed to nab a goal and three assists. But he stilled looked a bit uncomfortable on the ice at times, seemingly afraid to try what worked in Grand Rapids. There were also a few of those defensive lapses the organization tried to work out of him with the Griffins – although they were significantly rarer than they had been in the past.
They Said It
“The first thing (you notice) is the strength and the transformation of his body type by the hard work in the gym. You see it carry over on the ice into a more explosive first step. He seems to be harder to push around, in front of the net and in battles. He’s strong on his stick. He’s a hard-working guy and he’s done a lot to improve his game.”
-Captain Dylan Larkin via the Detroit News
Final Grade
Gustav Lindstrom
2021 Statline
Games Played: 13
Goals: 0
Assists: 3
+-: 1
Preseason Projection
Borderline NHLer
2021 Season in a Nutshell
Like Cholowski, Gustav Lindstrom spent a good chunk of his season in Grand Rapids. Because of his defensive style, Lindstrom didn’t quite have the stats that Cholowski did with the Griffins, but he did show promise as a low-risk reliable player on the blue line.
After appearing on the main roster, Lindstrom essentially lived up to those expectations. While his possession metrics are a bit ugly (40.8 CF%), the eye test showed a player relatively comfortable as a low-pairing NHL defenseman. Lindstrom made clean tape-to-tape passes (The best of which being a slick slide to Jakub Vrana for his first goal of the season) and didn’t make too many defensive mistakes.
They Said It
“I don’t want to downplay the word ‘simple’ … I would say he just tends to make the right play. The right play might be the simple play and the right play might be a cross-seam play. He just makes the right play that’s available and manages risk-reward real well.”
-Jeff Blashill via the Detroit News