Waived: DeKeyser

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Sorry, let me see if I can locate my excel file on Red Wings d-man history dating back to the last 96 years.

Found it.

Tier = Not Very Guuuud

This wasn't helpful.

Real talk though, he's probably at the bottom of the top ten of post lockout D.

Inarguably worse than

Lidstrom
Chelios
Kronner
Stuart
Schneider
Rafalski

Clearly worse than, but this guy only has a year, so it's not fair to put him in the group with the experienced guys.

Seider

Arguably worse/better than

Ericsson
Fischer
Green

 

[SoupGuru]

In the 2013-2014 season, DDK had 2.34 power play points per 60.

In the 2014-2015 season, he peaked at 3.4 PPP/60

From that point forward he was basically off the PP entirely.

That's and average of 2.87 PPP/60.

Last year, that would have been good enough to be 2nd best defenseman on the team in PPP/60.

This season, his peak of 3.4 would be good enough for second as well.

More of an indictment of how terrible our PP is these days but it's fun to find those oddities.

 

[FabricDetails]

I know the image of his play the past few years is brutal but the guy has earned at least some flowers as the young kids say.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

In the 2013-2014 season, DDK had 2.34 power play points per 60.

In the 2014-2015 season, he peaked at 3.4 PPP/60

From that point forward he was basically off the PP entirely.

That's and average of 2.87 PPP/60.

Last year, that would have been good enough to be 2nd best defenseman on the team in PPP/60.

This season, his peak of 3.4 would be good enough for second as well.

More of an indictment of how terrible our PP is these days but it's fun to find those oddities.

Danny DeKeyser should have never played on a NHL PP to begin with. The league got wise to the fact he couldn't shoot and immediately used that against the unit. We had to still watch him get time from time to time, it was just never his strength.

Honestly DeKeyser strength has always been in emergency defending. He is good at odd-man situations and generally has been an adequate PK guy despite his troubles around the crease at clearing his man or along the boards. But injuries have taken a ton from the guy, he was a NHL guy (probably a #4 or #5 for most years), but I think the reality is DeKeyser peaked early the NHL figured out some things about him and then his frail body failed from the pounding. Made a good living and by almost all accounts was a good guy and teammate. I wish him well, but he shouldn't really play in this league again, that's where he is at these days as a player.

 

[DetroitRed]

I've got one eye on Edmonton to see if Danny makes one last ride as coveted "playoff depth."

I know that's a meme at this point, but they do actually need blueline help right now. Normally I'd hand waive this away but mmmayybbee?

More power to him if he does. Yeah, maybe Holland is still willing.

 

[RRhoads]

Fischer

Really?

 

[Henkka]

I know the image of his play the past few years is brutal but the guy has earned at least some flowers as the young kids say.

And injured guys do not deserve the hate.

It's always crazy when some player is signed as healthy on his extension. Then he gets injured and never reaches the same level. And GM is judged thanks to that. Couldn't see the injury from the crystal ball.

Same happened with Ericsson. Those guys were signed when they were healthy and playing well.

 

[SoupGuru]

Danny DeKeyser should have never played on a NHL PP to begin with. The league got wise to the fact he couldn't shoot and immediately used that against the unit. We had to still watch him get time from time to time, it was just never his strength.

Honestly DeKeyser strength has always been in emergency defending. He is good at odd-man situations and generally has been an adequate PK guy despite his troubles around the crease at clearing his man or along the boards. But injuries have taken a ton from the guy, he was a NHL guy (probably a #4 or #5 for most years), but I think the reality is DeKeyser peaked early the NHL figured out some things about him and then his frail body failed from the pounding. Made a good living and by almost all accounts was a good guy and teammate. I wish him well, but he shouldn't really play in this league again, that's where he is at these days as a player.

Right. I guess my point is for as strongly as people feel about whether DDK deserved PP time, they seem silent about Leddy or Hronek who have been even worse.

 

[izlez]

I gotta say, I don't really understand why we're rushing to make all these in-memoriam posts when we went through this same thing a year ago. He could very well be in the lineup next week.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Man, I remember how hyped we all were to win the DDK sweepstakes when he was a college FA.

Dekeyser was legit good when he first came into the league. First couple of seasons he really was a solid 2nd pairing d-man.

 

[sepster]

It's amusing to think that both DeKeyser and Chelios lasted 10 years with the Wings. Dan started at 22 and made it 32, Chelios started at 38 and made it to 48. And, I'd argue, Chelios' tenure was several orders better than DeKeyser's.

This is more to point out how uniquely special Chelios was rather than to knock on DeKeyser.

 

[The Red Line]

I'm older than DDK

Same. And retirement is a looooooooong ways away.

 

[SimonEdvinssonAtSix]

Same. And retirement is a looooooooong ways away.

Wait... You guys get to retire?!

 

[Frk It]

nvm.

 

[Henkka]

It's amusing to think that both DeKeyser and Chelios lasted 10 years with the Wings. Dan started at 22 and made it 32, Chelios started at 38 and made it to 48. And, I'd argue, Chelios' tenure was several orders better than DeKeyser's.

This is more to point out how uniquely special Chelios was rather than to knock on DeKeyser.

What's common for them, that Chelios career was over after he had enough serious (ankle) injury.

Until that, he was healthy and useful.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Right. I guess my point is for as strongly as people feel about whether DDK deserved PP time, they seem silent about Leddy or Hronek who have been even worse.

We were a playoff team when he got those minutes so some of his time intersected with Datsyuk and Zetterberg. I would point out a lot of the actual scoring came later in games where we used two d-man on leads at the time. Leddy and Hronek are better PP players just as they are better point producers at even strength.

This reminds me of a Captain Bob/Newsy/MBH argument that uses one category with absurd point per usage to cover something we all know. Over the course of his career Danny DeKeyser simply was a below average offensive player. Giving him more usage would have been harmful to the team and certainly brought those numbers down.

It wasn't what he was here to do anyway. It is also tough being the defensive stay at home guy in the top 4 unless your team is winning. Look at how much we liked Brad Stuart versus how he was failing to live up other places. Now he was a lot better than DK, just saying DK played a tough role on a caliber teams he had to ever really be someone the fan-base liked. It isn't a mistake in my opinion that he was liked when we were better, Lindstrom for instance could see a growth in people liking him as we get better but won't in a massive way until the team does in my opinion.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

It's amusing to think that both DeKeyser and Chelios lasted 10 years with the Wings. Dan started at 22 and made it 32, Chelios started at 38 and made it to 48. And, I'd argue, Chelios' tenure was several orders better than DeKeyser's.

This is more to point out how uniquely special Chelios was rather than to knock on DeKeyser.

Well, Chelios was 2nd in the Norris when he was what, 41? And won a couple of cups. Granted, the last few years he'd lost his place to the likes of Lilja, Lebda and Meech, which showed how far he'd fallen. He also had the benefit of playing in the Clutch & Grab era till 2004, a luxury DeKeyser never had.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Well, Chelios was 2nd in the Norris when he was what, 41? And won a couple of cups. Granted, the last few years he'd lost his place to the likes of Lilja, Lebda and Meech, which showed how far he'd fallen. He also had the benefit of playing in the Clutch & Grab era till 2004, a luxury DeKeyser never had.

Agreed.

Chelios had a great career with Detroit but in all honesty he should've been out of the lineup at least a season or two earlier. It's partly why is hatred for Babcock about his ice time is so misplaced. He complains about not being able to "win Babcock's heart" when in reality he was benefitting from the tie going to the veteran. And when you have the career of Chris Chelios, it doesn't even have to be a tie. They kept him and waived Quincey. And we know how that turned out.

 

[sepster]

Agreed.
They kept him and waived Quincey. And we know how that turned out.

Holland kept Derek Meech over Quincey.

Going with the "vet wins a tie" philosophy that was in place, the roster choice going into the '08-'09 season came down to a choice between the two young guys, Quincey and Meech, and Holland chose to waive Quincey. It was a baffling and infuriating choice at the time
considering Meech was a poor man's Lebda, and Lebda was still on the team.

That was a perfect example of the asset management blind spots that Holland had. Why keep a player that is incredibly similar to one you already have (an under-sized "puck-moving" utility player) at the expense of a different type of player (larger, physical shut-down utility player) that you don't have a lot of.

 

[SoupGuru]

We were a playoff team when he got those minutes so some of his time intersected with Datsyuk and Zetterberg. I would point out a lot of the actual scoring came later in games where we used two d-man on leads at the time. Leddy and Hronek are better PP players just as they are better point producers at even strength.

This reminds me of a Captain Bob/Newsy/MBH argument that uses one category with absurd point per usage to cover something we all know. Over the course of his career Danny DeKeyser simply was a below average offensive player. Giving him more usage would have been harmful to the team and certainly brought those numbers down.

It wasn't what he was here to do anyway. It is also tough being the defensive stay at home guy in the top 4 unless your team is winning. Look at how much we liked Brad Stuart versus how he was failing to live up other places. Now he was a lot better than DK, just saying DK played a tough role on a caliber teams he had to ever really be someone the fan-base liked. It isn't a mistake in my opinion that he was liked when we were better, Lindstrom for instance could see a growth in people liking him as we get better but won't in a massive way until the team does in my opinion.

DeKeyser is out scoring Leddy at even strength this season, fyi.

 

[Frk It]

DeKeyser is out scoring Leddy at even strength this season, fyi.

Leddy has been a huge disappointment, and I supported the hell out of trading for him.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

This wasn't helpful.

Real talk though, he's probably at the bottom of the top ten of post lockout D.

Inarguably worse than

Lidstrom
Chelios
Kronner
Stuart
Schneider
Rafalski

Clearly worse than, but this guy only has a year, so it's not fair to put him in the group with the experienced guys.

Seider

Arguably worse/better than

Ericsson
Fischer
Green

Fischer was moving into realgud territory before the heart problem. Ericsson had a couple years where he was gud to realgud, but was playing way above his level. Mike Green was always prettybad to realbad.

DeKeyser had a couple seasons in the gud category but never any above that. And the last 4-5 years he's been prettybad to realbad.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Leddy has been a huge disappointment, and I supported the hell out of trading for him.

Me too, bud. Me too.

I'm not pointing the finger at Hronek as the sole reason for Leddy's failures, but Leddy-Hronek is not an ideal pair at all. Leddy-Lindstrom would have been more effective because Leddy is at his best when he's the guy skating the puck and letting his partner do the tough defending, and when you watch Leddy-Hronek you've got 2 guys that are playing similarly and there isn't good on-ice chemistry between them.

 

[Frk It]

Me too, bud. Me too.

I'm not pointing the finger at Hronek as the sole reason for Leddy's failures, but Leddy-Hronek is not an ideal pair at all. Leddy-Lindstrom would have been more effective because Leddy is at his best when he's the guy skating the puck and letting his partner do the tough defending, and when you watch Leddy-Hronek you've got 2 guys that are playing similarly and there isn't good on-ice chemistry between them.

We needed Leddy-Seider to work and then I think the thought process is we would run Dekeyser-Hronek. But for whatever reason, I don't think Leddy-Seider has worked. I heard them saying during one of our recent games that Seider has a great plus/minus despite the fact that his 2 most common partners have terrible plus/minuses.

Our chemistry on our defensive pairings is bad and it shows. We need to get a different mix of guys back there around the young players.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

I gotta say, I don't really understand why we're rushing to make all these in-memoriam posts when we went through this same thing a year ago. He could very well be in the lineup next week.

That is totally possible, but the physical deterioration is also pretty hard to ignore at this point too.