Detroit Red Wings: When will the Dennis Cholowski experiment end?
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Red Wings continue to give defenseman Dennis Cholowski chances at the NHL level. Cholowski has disappointed, for the most part, being quite inefficient on the team’s back end. It seems like he is going to keep getting chances which frankly is stupid.
As long as the Detroit Red Wings have head coach Jeff Blashill, Cholowski seems like he is going to get chances. With the extension of Blashill, it can be an almost sure bet that Cholowski is going to be in the lineup a good deal in 2021-22.
Cholowski has logged time with the Red Wings in the past three seasons and has been pretty useless as it is. There was hope that the 2016 first-round pick was going to be something special, but he has not been able to get things moving on the back end.
The Red Wings need to realize that Cholowski is simply not going to pan out like they would have hoped. Instead, the Red Wings continue to have Cholowski suit up and be a liability in the defensive zone.
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Dennis Cholowski needs to have chances limited.
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In 2019-20, it seemed that Cholowski was making strides and figuring things out.
The Red Wings defenseman was way more sound in the defensive zone. Between then and now, the struggles have returned, and Cholowski seems to be running out of time.
In 2020-21, Cholowski played in 16 games where he had just one goal and two assists for three total points.
His average ice time is down, and he is sitting a tick under 16 minutes a night, but he has not locked up things in the defensive zone.
Fortunately, Cholowski’s plus/minus has changed, and he posted a minus-one last season.
A far cry from his minus-20 or worse in the past few seasons. So the defense was better but is still not where the Red Wings would like it to be for a former first-round pick.
The Red Wings need to realize that Cholowski’s opportunities have to run out at some point. While he may have shown some defensive improvements, the offense and scoring have gone out the window.
The bottom line is that the Red Wings need to limit how many chances Cholowski has to stick. But, with Blashill being kept around, Cholowski is likely going to frequent the lineup throughout the 2021-22 season.
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Time will tell; the 2021-22 season is still a ways away, but expect Cholowski to continue seeing playing time on his seemingly unlimited chances.