Christian Djoos: 2017-18 season review

A seventh-round draft pick who isn’t particularly big, Christian Djoos is nonetheless a Stanley Cup Champion and the beacon for a bright future of the Caps blue line.

By The Numbers

63	games played
14.0	time on ice per game
3	goals
11	assists
51.6	5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted
58.8	5-on-5 goal percentage, adjusted

Visualization by HockeyViz

About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows various metrics for the player over the course of the season. A short description of each chart:

Most common teammates during 5-on-5
Ice time per game, split up by game state
5-on-5 adjusted shot attempts by the team (black) and opponents (red)
5-on-5 adjusted shooting percentage by the team (black) and opponents (red)
Individual scoring events by the player
5-on-5 adjusted offensive (black) and defensive (red) zone starts

Peter’s Take

About a year ago, I spoke with Chocolate Hockey’s Kyle Mace about the future of the Caps blue line. Mace was enthusiastic about Djoos, a smart yet undersized defensive prospect. Djoos’ 63-game rookie season didn’t quite deliver the next Mike Green (Djoos’ individual contributions to the offense were about Orlov levels – a little over half of Green’s peak output), but Djoos was still the sole rookie D to survive the season, and he looked increasingly comfortable in his role as the year wore on.

That role was complicated. Here’s shot attempt percentages (SA%) for Djoos’ most common D partners when they were with or without him.

Player	TOI	With Djoos	Without Djoos
Carlson	531	53.5	45.4
Orpik	105	48.3	43.2
Chorney	63	48.6	42.7
Orlov	48	54.7	49.5
Niskanen	39	48.3	48.7

Djoos spent most of his season with John Carlson, and they were excellent together in modest assignments. When Kempny locked into the lineup, Djoos slotted with Brooks Orpik, turning an outright disaster despite sheltered minutes into a more even game. (It’s worth nothing that Djoos performed about as well with Chorney as he did with Orpik.)

For every player except Niskanen, Djoos significantly improved the flow of game for his teammate. Part of that is context (that D-partner often got easier assignments when playing with Djoos), but part of that is Djoos’ genuine smarts with and without the puck. He’s fast and he passes well, which matched up wonderfully with the Caps’ more mobile top-nine forwards. Tactical analysis of Djoos has been glowing in limited samples, and that should be very, very encouraging for a sophomore season in 2018-19.

So once again the Caps have found an under-appreciated, unconventional defenseman late in the draft and turned him into a real NHL-caliber player. I’m excited for the future of Christian Djoos.

Djoos on RMNB

A year ago, Justin Bourne called his shot, naming Djoos as a breakout player for 2017-18.
In his first career NHL game on October 11, Djoos scored his first career NHL goal on his first career NHL shot.

https://twitter.com/NBCSCapitals/status/918284927493427201

On his humble origins: “I don’t really think about being a seventh-round pick. It doesn’t really matter being a third round or seventh, but I’m happy that the Caps chose me and that I’m here now.”
Pat was very enthused by Djoos’ first few games, but an injury in November sidelined Djoos for a while. Barry Trotz wouldn’t say if it was a concussion or not.
The injury didn’t seem to affect Djoos’ confidence. He exploded with offense in late December. Check out these moves.