MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Danny DeKeyser’s 2018-19 season this morning:
2018-19 outlook: DeKeyser’s offseason goal as always is to gain strength to help him win more puck battles. He said he’s comfortable with his weight.
DeKeyser’s strength is skating, so it took him a while to feel comfortable after missing five weeks with a fractured ankle. He was a minus-10 in his first 10 games after returning from the injury and then posted a plus-13 rating over the final 52 games. He was more consistent the second half of the season.
The Red Wings need DeKeyser to be a shutdown defender who can get the puck out of the zone quickly, like he was earlier in his career before taking a big step back in 2016-17.
The team planned on pairing DeKeyser with Trevor Daley heading into last season, but the injury changed things. Daley spent most of season playing alongside Jonathan Ericsson while DeKeyser was with Nick Jensen much of the time.
