Photo: The Athletic
Player Overview
Team: University of Wisconsin (NCAA)
Position: LW/C
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 192 lbs.
Introduction
After a dominating performance last season with the Okotoks Oilers of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Holloway had a lot of buzz entering his draft year as a potential top 10 pick in the 2020 entry draft. He chose to go the college hockey route to play for the University of Wisconsin, a team that had high expectations with former first round picks Alex Turcotte, Cole Caufield and K’Andre Miller at the program. He was also one of only two first-year draft eligible to play in the NCAA this season (University of Connecticut defenseman Yan Kuznetsov is the other).
The Badgers as a whole greatly failed to live up to expectations, and Holloway didn’t quite match the hype he had entering the year. However, there’s still a reason Holloway was as anticipated as he was coming into this season. The major scouting services have a lot of variance on Holloway. He’s been ranked as high as 10 (Future Considerations) and as low as 29 (Hockeyprospect.com) and came in at 16 on Bob McKenzie’s rankings that panel NHL scouts.
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Hockey IQ and 200-Foot Game
Holloway’s game is founded on his smarts, instincts and two-way play. While his IQ is evident in his offensive game, it’s mostly put to work on the other side of the puck. He’s almost never out of position and makes the right defensive read just about every time. He’s a fantastic forechecker, finishes his hits and backchecks hard. These aren’t the plays that are going to wow fans, but they’re the ones that are going to earn the trust of his coaches as he advances to professional hockey.
Notice here how the instant the opposing player puts his head down Holloway attacks the puck to force a turnover and generate a breakaway for himself.
The timing of this play is impeccable. If he attacks before the Ohio State player looks down, the puck would be moved out of danger. If he waits a bit longer, the opposition would likely have regained control of the puck and pushed up the ice.
Here’s another example of Holloway putting his instincts to work defensively, this time on the backcheck. As soon as he reads that the attacking forward is going to shoot, he quickly gets himself into the shooting lane and blocks the shot.
In the defensive zone, he’s always willing to sacrifice the body and block a shot. He positions himself well to adjust to any movements made by the shooter. If he goes down for the block, he rarely lets the shot get by him.
Physicality
It doesn’t take very long to notice how much Holloway loves to throw his weight around. Any chance he gets to play the body, he takes it. Not only does he take it, but he’ll almost always finish his check extremely hard.
He’ll go for the hit on the forecheck:
On the backcheck:
When the opposition is set up in the offensive zone:
And in loose puck battles:
Don’t forget how young Holloway is compared to the rest of college hockey. The fact that he’s still able to bully opposing players that are four or more years older than him is remarkable.
Also notice how Holloway isn’t putting himself out of position on any of these hits. As much as he loves to deliver the big, punishing blow, he knows when to do it and not be caught out of position because of it. This is a sign of incredible maturity in his game for such a young player and shows that at the very least he can contribute in a bottom six checking role.
Skating
Holloway’s skating is a very interesting part of his game. He’s excellent on his edges and has good agility, and his top speed is pretty good too. When he really digs deep, his stride looks powerful and explosive, almost as if he found another gear in him.
He’s also one of the few players who is able to skate just about as fast with the puck as he is without the puck, as evident below.
The concerns are that Holloway doesn’t all the time hit this extra gear he seems to have. It’s not because he’s a lazy player by any stretch. It appears that he’s a bit too upright sometimes, and if he were able to get more bend in his knew while he skates, he’d be able to get the power and explosion he shows in the clips above. He usually picks up speed by making a few crossovers, which is definitely not an issue, but I wonder if he could find that extra gear more consistently if he were to get a 90° bend in his knees as he accelerates.
By no means is this a red flag in his game, and his skating certainly hasn’t hurt him. It’s above average for college hockey, and as the second youngest player in the country, that’s darn impressive. If Holloway is able to find that extra gear more often he’ll be ready to explode offensively and really produce a lot of transition offense.
Playmaking
If Holloway’s two-way game is what can make him an NHLer, his offensive ability is what can push him into a top-six role. In terms of playmaking, Holloway isn’t going to be making the jaw-dropping spin-o-rama passes, but he makes the right passes and delivers them accurately. Rarely will you see him miss his target when making a pass. Even through traffic, Holloway is able to deliver the puck where it needs to go.
His hands are quick enough that he can make the one-touch passes with ease. See here how quick he makes the pass to the slot to complete the triangle set-up.
Those passes are much more difficult to execute than they look, especially when passing into a contested area of the ice. But sometimes the passing lane won’t be there right away, and Holloway has the vision and instincts to create the play and set up dangerous chances.
This clip shows exactly what I’m talking about. As soon as the weak-side defender stepped up on Holloway, he was able to recognize the lane is was going to create. But the lane was only going to be there momentarily, as he had another defender moving laterally with him and would’ve been in the passing lane if Holloway took as much as one extra stickhandle. He makes no mistake in delivering the puck at just the right time to set up the mini breakaway. The perfect timing of his pass shows the pure playmaking instincts Holloway possesses, and this will definitely translate to higher levels of hockey.
Here’s another example of Holloway using his IQ and instincts to create something out of nothing.
When Holloway gets around the net, most players would pass the puck straight ahead to their defenseman. But Holloway notices how deep the far side winger has dropped and knows if he can get the puck to that defenseman instead, there’d be a pretty good shooting lane available. If he makes the pass to the near side defenseman, that shooting lane would be gone by the time they could execute a D-to-D pass. So Holloway gets to work. He makes a quick cut inside, pulls back a bit so his defenseman can creep in and delivers the pass.
In this next clip, pay attention to how quickly he stickhandles after picking up the puck and makes the backhand pass to the slot.
It can be easy to look at this play and not think much of what Holloway did. The pass itself was just a short pass to an open man in the slot, but this is another play that’s much more difficult to perform at high speeds than it looks. Many players won’t have a clean handle on the puck in time to make the pass and will end up stickhandling behind the net, so it’s nice that Holloway is able to make the play happen for the best possible scoring chance.
None of these plays are the types of passes we see from the upper echelon playmakers in the NHL. They are, however, all plays that the average player wouldn’t be able to make. It takes the right combination of skill and smarts to pull these off, and Holloway brings that to the table.
Shot
The best part about Holloway’s shot is his quick release. He’s able to get quick wrist shots off without much of a delay, especially in transition. His accuracy is also very good, but still room for improvement. The power on his shot is decent, but not spectacular.
Here’s an example of Holloway using that quick shot in transition:
His release is a very quick and fluid motion that can be difficult for a goaltender to get a good read on. When he has a bit of space he’s able to use that release to accurately snap it home.
His one-timer isn’t anything to write home about. It’s decent and he can use it when need be, but it certainly won’t be his calling card in the NHL. He’d rather do a quick catch and release in those situations, which he’s quite good at.
Going back to Holloway’s vision, he does a good job of seeing a play develop and getting himself into scoring positions. Notice in this next clip how the moment he sees where he can get open, he makes the nifty drop pass, gets into the right spot and opens up to shoot (and ultimately buries it).
Holloway probably won’t be a 30+ goal scorer in the NHL, but 20 goals certainly isn’t out of the question. Given how much he likes to get into dirty areas, he could easily get a lot of production camping out in front of the next for deflections and rebound opportunities. His goal scoring will be more reliant on his instincts than it will his shot itself, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Conclusion
In breaking down Holloway’s game, I used the word “instincts” six times. That wasn’t unintentional. Everything he does revolves around his brain and his natural feel of the game than it does a specific standout skill. While he’s certainly a very skilled player, those skills seem to complement his brain, which isn’t something we usually see out of young players like this.
His production with Wisconsin this year was a bit underwhelming to what expectations were, but when watching him closely, it’s apparent that he still has all the traits to be successful playing at higher levels. While I’d like to see him bring out his skill a bit more, he’s more willing to make the smart, efficient play as opposed to the one that makes the highlight reels. This may cause some to bump him down in their rankings in favor of flashier players, but there’s certainly still a lot to like with Holloway.
I doubt we’ll see Holloway as a true top line center in the NHL, but I can easily see him developing into a really good second liner. He also has the right skillset, IQ and 200-foot game to complement higher skill players on the top line to retrieve pucks, forecheck heavily and contribute offensively. We saw him generating a lot more offense when he was playing with other high skill players like Caufield and/or Turcotte, which leads me to believe that a top-six role in the NHL is definitely within reach for Holloway.
I’ll leave you with two last clips that really summarize exactly what Holloway brings to the table. Here, a good pass, heavy backcheck and throwing his weight around:
And him forcing a turnover and quickly finding a teammate in open ice for the goal:
He may not be the sexy pick come draft day, but his contributions are certainly worthy of the selection. If he’s available in the second half of the first round, a playoff team could be getting a major reinforcement in a couple years.
Rankings
#29- HockeyProspect.com
#10- Future Considerations
#20- ISSHockey
#26- McKeen’s Hockey
#18- Eliteprospects
#15- RecruitScouting