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richkrt99:
--- Quote from: Mickstix on Thursday July 25, 2019, 07:33:14 PM Eastern ---What makes Djoos' contract so special? If they need to move someone, move HIM..
--- End quote ---
He's special cause we are short on D and Djoos is the perfect specimen of prototypical NHL dman: 155lbs of Swedish meatball :P
PUCKNRUSH:
I haven’t had a big problem with Djoos in the lineup, and am ok with the signing.
Absolutely Djoos is tiny, as far as D men go, but he seems to be quite aware of it, and modifies his play accordingly.
His biggest strength is in having an EXCELLENT, defensive, hockey IQ. He is also a very quick decision maker! Two qualities that many on our defense, BADLY LACK! We’ve seen this over and over!
My guess is that, he was FORCED to have to prioritize, and rely on his hockey smarts, and snap decisions, in order to JUST survive, given his size, and realizing that, from his teenage years on, that most all of the other boys that were advancing with him, through the ranks, were growing bigger and stronger, while he remained smaller!
This type of player either EVOLVES and survives, or he DOESNT. The fact that he survives at the pro level, suggests, and obviously his coaches agree, that he has found a way!
When I think more about it, observing Djoos’s size would make an easy prediction for anyone, that he would just get knocked all around, and be like an ineffective, little wet puppy, shivering over in some small corner of the ice....
ON THE CONTRARY!! In reality, you rarely, if ever, see this happening to Djoos. He smartly avoids these situations, (again, learned survival), plays quite astutely, and actually ranks among our top Dmen, in reliably bringing up the puck from our end! Which by the way, was one of our BIGGEST defensive issues last year!! Most of our defensemen, rank BELOW Djoos in this category!
Secondly, Rich is right, in that Djoos can’t clear the crease very well, however I don’t believe the coaches expect that role out of Djoos!
Djoos isn’t much of a defensive “man-mover” either. But he makes up for it often with swiftness, and anticipation of movement!
I have to also ask, which D men do we have, all of which are larger than Djoos, that actually clear creases?? Orpik was ok at it, he’s gone. The pathetic answer is NOBODY! Nobody clears the crease well on our team! And we get killed by it, often!!
Lastly, IMO, it seems that so many of the goals scored against us, from a defensive perspective, came as a result of either, stupid penalties, failure to reliably clear the puck, bone head decisions/communication between defensemen, or lack of defensive EFFORT!
These specific defensive issues, however, are not the issues that we see plague Mr. Djoos! He does have HIS weaknesses, to be sure, but not, so much, in the areas of our markedly, more harmful, defensive issues! This explains why the coaches keep him around.
Rush
richkrt99:
Good post Rush. I'd grudgingly agree with your assessment on Juice. He has learned to be effective at parts of the game he can survive in. He is effective at "his" game. He positioning is good. I am sure that's why mgmt/coaching likes him. He just isn't the D-man on my wish list.
I will agree ALOT of the Caps D problem is clearing the zone - its not the initial rush, its the inability to move the puck up and out that seems to plaque us. They get hemmed in and then do something stupid with the puck. That's not all on the D guys either. However, having a smaller sized D is only going exacerbate the problem of retrieving a lost puck. Djoos simply can't take it back - he positions himself well to defend it, but simply cannot just go take it away. Not sure why our coaching staff has not developed some schemes to help clear the puck better (with whatever talent pool they have available). I realize we have to work with what we have.
I'm just a little surprised at the $1.25m. I mean I guess Arbitration shoots for middle ground, but Juice's corner asking for $1.9m is a joke, all things considered. A fairly unproven, seriously injured 24 year old 160 lb D guy, who did struggle last season....seems like a stretch. I would have been okay with an even $1m for him at this point in his "career"
I looked up a few stats on him - He is an overall +24 in plus/minus in 108 NHL games. His corsi numbers are pretty even (neither good or bad). He is upside down on giveaways vs take aways with 23 take aways and 55 give away.
Now, I am not a real stat guy and don't even know if that TK vs GV stat is average or below average for a NHL d man, but I would think that's not great....especially for a guy on a good team.
He does have 100+ games of NHL experience, so there's something. His playoff stats are much worse, but also not as large of a sample pool, but 22/25 of his playoff games were during the Stanley Cup year, so his playoff numbers should be better.
I looked up Orlov's numbers for comparison...and Orlov's stats are better....especially if you add in Hits and blocked shots. I realize not the same type of player, but Orly was the first one I think of when it comes to stupid turnovers in our own end.
Anyway, not really knocking Juice, but think $1.25 is about 20% too much for him, all things considered. But then, WTF do I know.
For what its worth, I went back and looked up team corsi for the Caps last year and it was 49.0, so Juice at 48.8 that year means he is about at the team average.
DC_1908:
--- Quote from: richkrt99 on Thursday July 25, 2019, 03:29:41 PM Eastern ---Sounds like maybe the Caps KNOW someone isn't going to be ready, (I assume that would have to be Kempny) but that only solves the dollars issue short term. That and they got F'd by arbitration. Djoos aint worth 1.25 mil. Not unless he put on 30 lbs which brings him up to a whopping 185lbs. I mean, with the current D situation, I was figuring let Djoos go and just rely on Ziggy and bring up Lewington or such for the 7th D man. Sooner or later, they younger D guys are going to have to get some real playing time.
Djoos has performed better than (I expected) due to his size, but you just can't get away from that being an issue. He is either going to get exposed (ahem....playoffs) or flat out killed in the NHL sooner or later. He seems to be smart enough and good stick skills, but asking a 160lb guy to clear Malkin out of the crease or knock him off the puck in the corner is a bit of a stretch.
Currently, with Djoos they are over only by about $300k, I think. ($314,294 - without Stevo)
What if Stevo gets moved to Hershey and the caps have a 22 man roster? Hershey roster players don't count vs the Cap can they?
I think maybe the Caps were thinking Djoos arbitration would come in at more like $950k?....(which they had exactly $935,706 to work with). The guy made $650k last year and arbitration doubled that? That's a little much all things considered. You can say he was underpaid last year, strictly based on amount of playing time, but not by half.
That and the Caps and everyone else was figuring the cap to be a little higher than it turned out, so the margins are that much closer.
--- End quote ---
I would HOPE it’s because they know how bad
Kempys “Lower Body Injury” is and that he’ll be starting on LTIR at best. But, this is Monumental Entertainment. This could of very well of happened without Kempy being hurt as overpaying a player that fits their agenda and was on the Cup team over the player and abilities.
Djoos, is OK. He’s a good skater and can play both RD and LD. But he is just an Offensive Dman, of which we have to many of to begin with.
Mickstix:
Ok, I got ya.. Just saw the post about moving Oshie, Eller, or Copley.. I mean Djoos is ok, but I wouldn't be trading off anyone of those 3 to keep
his tiny ass.. :raspberry: :rofl:
As for Kempny.. Im not so sure he's gonna be on any IR list. Saw a video of the dude running up/down stadium stairs the other day..
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