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2015-16 Red Wings Player Grades: Kyle Quincey

Player Profile

Kyle Quincey
Born: August 12, 1985
Birthplace: Kitchener, ON
Shoots: Left
Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent

Player Stats

Season Age GP G A PTS ATOI
2015-16 30 47 4 7 11 19:45

Season Narrative

Quincey started the season holding a place for Danny DeKeyser on Mike Green’s pairing before an early-season shakeup was derailed thanks in large part to a concussion suffered on October 23rd against Calgary. As Quincey came out of that problem, a new/old injury issue popped up and he had to be sidelined after surgery to remove bone chips from his ankle. Despite the seven-game early look, Quincey didn’t really get into the season until January, where he didn’t miss another game until being named a scratch for game 3 of the Wings’ first round series against Tampa.

From a high-level stats perspective, the stay-at-home defenseman’s 11 points tied him for worst on the team among players who played more than five games and weren’t traded to Florida for table scraps. Half of Quincey’s goals were empty-netters, but at least a quarter of them were game-winners! Quincey also managed to be only the third most-prodigious penalty-taker on the Wings’ blue line this season.

On the fancy side, his rate for scoring points at even strength was slightly better than Niklas Kronwall, but still really really bad, placing him in the bottom 40% of the league for D-men who played at least 500 minutes. Granted, he’s been turned into a stay-at-home guy, so his points are gravy, but the possession numbers aren’t good either, putting him either second from the bottom or at the absolute bottom for categories such as CF%, scoring/high-danger scoring chance %, and scoring/high-danger scoring chance against/60.

Every Red Wings player save for one who shared at least 100 minutes of 5-on-5 time with Kyle Quincey saw their CF% increase when they were separated from him (Riley Sheahan was at 51.5% either way).

What He Did vs. Expectations

The thing the fancystats doesn’t fully account for is that the reason he was a black hole for himself and for other players (including other black holes like Jonathan Ericsson and Luke Glendening) is that since Quincey returned to the Wings as kind of a points-scoring power play specialist, he’s been molded into a stay-at-home guy to play a shutdown role. Part of the reason other players saw better numbers away from Quincey was that it was also getting them away from guys like Claude Giroux, Sidney Crosby, and John Tavares; three of the top ten players against whom Quincey shared time.

As part of the 2nd penalty killing unit, Quincey did his job clearing the net front and getting pucks out quite well. He wasn’t a PK god or anything, but if you’re looking for holes in coverage leading to goals, Quincey often wasn’t the weak link.

Overall, he was asked to play shutdown defense, clear the net-front, and not turn the puck over in really dangerous areas of the ice. For the most part, he pulled that off to a level slightly exceeding what we expected from him as a guy making 2nd-pairing money. He was played like a guy making more, which mitigates for me his inability to be a $6M+ defenseman.

Final Grade – B Minus

Kyle Quincey has been a pleasant surprise for the Red Wings in the last two years of a deal I wasn’t happy he signed. while on an overall scale of all defensemen in the league, I wouldn’t put him in the top 60. I think he’s a serviceable 2nd-pairing defenseman who got played at many points this season like he should be a top shutdown guy. He’s not suited for that role, but he also wasn’t a tire fire when forced into it. I think he’d be a good addition to a team that isn’t as desperate for high-end talent on the back end as Detroit and I’ll probably wish him well right up until he signs with the Avs or something, at which point I’ll fondly look back at his service here while telling him to get bent moving forward.

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