We’re inching ever closer to the Flyers’ pick territory, and after a run of CHL forwards, we’re taking a quick detour over to the Big Ten of the NCAA to talk about Dylan Holloway, who just wrapped up a pretty solid season at the University of Wisconsin (playing with our old pal Wyatt Kalynuk!). Holloway is a bit of a polarizing prospect, older for his draft class but already with a season of college hockey under his belt, and who’s looking like he has some pretty exciting upside, all the same.
BSH 2020 Community Draft Board, No. 19: Dylan Holloway
2019-20 Season:
Team: Univ. of Wisconsin (NCAA)
Statistics: 8 G, 9 A in 35 GP
Pre-Draft Rankings
No. 12 (NA skaters) by NHL Central Scouting
No. 15 by Future Considerations
No. 20 by ISS Hockey
No. 18 by Wheeler/The Athletic
What’s there to like?
Holloway’s scoring numbers don’t quite jump off the page, but it still is a stat line we can feel pretty good about. He came on well after a bit of a slow start—understandable for a freshman just getting settled into college hockey—and he scored at a pretty solid rate on a Wisconsin team that struggled pretty mightily last season, finishing out with just 12 wins. He finished eighth in points on his team and third among freshmen, behind just Cole Caufield and Alex Turcotte, and tied for fourth in goals.
Holloway, in short, does a little bit of everything in his offensive game, and he does it well. He plays the game with pace, and brings a bit of a physical element as well. He skates well, his overall quickness is good, and he’s proven he can be elusive to defenders. He has a hard wrist shot, and his playmaking abilities are striking as well, as he’s shown a strength in passing and making plays through traffic, with a bit of speed. Which is all to say that there are a lot of pieces working well, and even if it wasn’t all clicking in a way that meant he was able to put up huge numbers in his first season with Wisconsin, there’s a lot to suggest that with a bit more development, it will.
But, that said, while Holloway’s offensive game tends to be what really jumps out, his defensive game is really solid as well. He has good vision and anticipation, strong instincts, backchecks well, and never seems to back down from a puck battle. He plays with an intensity, and this makes him just that much more effective.
What’s not to like?
It isn’t really so much a weakness in his game, but there are some debates among scouts about how high his offensive upside really is. Some think he can develop into as much as an elite playmaker, others think he isn’t that dynamic, though he may still cap out as a serviceable NHL player. Part of that is a question of consistency—he showed flashes of really stellar playmaking in his freshman year at Wisconsin, but could stand to do more of that—but part of it just seems to be differing in opinions and projections, based on which scout you’re talking to. And even if Holloway just hits that less optimistic ceiling, you’re still getting an NHL player, but whether a team thinks he’ll do more than that will certainly impact where he’s taken.
How would he fit in the Flyers’ system?
Holloway certainly does fit the mold of the type of player the Flyers tend to like—multidimensional forward, skates well, can chip in a bit of offense but doesn’t hurt his team defensively, really does a little bit of everything. He also would add a good bit of speed, which is something the Flyers could use a bit more of in their system. They do already have a fair few wingers who would be ahead of Holloway in the depth chart, but we’ve seen players jump up if they’ve earned the look with the big club, so that shouldn’t necessarily be a concern.
But, if you say “this guy could be a really strong playmaker at the NHL level,” there’s also an understanding that the Flyers already have a good number of those guys already in the pipeline, and some on the cusp of breaking into the league already. Should that deter them from picking him if he’s available when they’re on the clock? Absolutely not. Talent is talent, and that’s hard to pass up.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
This is a maybe. As we alluded to already, there’s definitely some variance in where different sources are projecting him to go. Mostly, though, it looks like he’s going to be off the board by the time the Flyers pick, so if they’ve absolutely fallen in love with him, they’d have to move up to get him (which is something they’ve indicated that they’re not really planning on doing, at least right now). But, it also wouldn’t surprise me if he started to fall a bit and then enough teams get scared off and decide not to take him, and if that’s the case, he might well fall into the Flyers’ lap.
2020 BSH Community Draft Board
- Alexis Lafreniere — LW, Rimouski (QMJHL)
- Quinton Byfield — C, Sudbury (OHL)
- Marco Rossi — C, Ottawa (OHL)
- Tim Stützle — LW/C, Manheim (DEL)
- Cole Perfetti — LW/C, Saginaw (OHL)
- Lucas Raymond — RW, Frölunda (SHL)
- Jamie Drysdale — D, Erie (OHL)
- Alexander Holtz — LW/RW, Djurgardens (SHL)
- Yaroslav Askarov — G, SKA (KHL)
- Anton Lundell — C, HIFK (Liiga)
- Connor Zary — C, Kamloops (WHL)
- Seth Jarvis — RW/C, Portland (WHL)
- Jake Sanderson — D, USNTDP (USHL)
- Noel Gunler — RW/LW, Lulea (SHL)
- Jan Mysak — C, Hamilton (OHL)
- Jack Quinn — RW, Ottawa (OHL)
- Jacob Perreault — RW, Sarnia (OHL)
- Mavrik Bourque — C, Shawinigan (QMJHL)
- Dylan Holloway — LW, Wisconsin (NCAA)
