You may have many questions about Dylan Holloway. The young left-winger was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2020–2021 draft at 14th overall but has not yet had the effect that fans may be hoping for.
Holloway’s hockey career
Thus far Holloway has played in 78 games but tallied only 13 points. Of the players picked after him in the first round who have played any time at all in the NHL, only four of 14 have fewer points than he, and only one of those has played over 10 games. Some impressive names are on the list of players taken after Holloway: Dawson Mercer, Braden Schneider, Connor Zary, Justin Baron, Jake Neighbours, J.J. Peterka, and Luke Evangelista were all picked after Holloway.
There is a question as to how wise this pick was the night of the draft, even before the benefit of hindsight. Holloway was coming off a tremendous season at the University of Wisconsin but originally came to Wisconsin from the AJHL where he put up solid points. It is very difficult to know how a player can perform against NHL players by watching AJHL play. Cale Makar was drafted from the AJHL which was frankly a stroke of genius on par with Einsteins Theory of Relativity. If things had turned out differently, the entire hockey world would have ridiculed Colorado endlessly for using a fourth overall pick on an AJHL player. Therefore, the bulk of meaningful scouting on Holloway came from his two years in the NCAA, only one of which was what you would call draft pick calibre.
Holloway’s development
I can’t, by any offensive stat, convince all you Oilers fans that Holloway will turn into what you are hoping for. For my part though, I enjoy watching him play and do think he can turn into something more impressive than he has been. He is a hard worker, is good sized, and is by no means slow. These are, fundamentally, the most important parts of hockey. It is these traits that allow you to get the puck back when you don’t have it, which is half of the game.
Holloway has spent almost the entirety of his NHL career on the third or fourth line. Saying a 22-year-old, fourth line players point totals are not impressive is like saying a Lambourghini isn’t fast because it’s stuck in a foot of mud. Here are the forwards from Holloways draft that I mentioned above and their most common line-mates this year, ranked by the average of the other two line-mates point per game totals over their career.
| Rank | Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing | Average PPG |
| 1 | Saad | Schenn | Neighbours | 0.626 |
| 2 | Zary | Kadri | Pospisil | 0.530 |
| 3 | Benson | Cozens | Peterka | 0.491 |
| 4 | Meier | McLeod | Mercer | 0.490 |
| 5 | Sherwood | Novak | Evangelista | 0.464 |
| 6 | Holloway | McLeod | Brown | 0.391 |
It’s easy to see that Holloway is not playing with as good of linemates and is therefore, not being given the same opportunity as his draftmates. The last goal that Holloway scored this year was when he was playing with Leon Draisaitl, even though it came while he was on the ice with Connor McDavid. I’m not necessarily suggesting he play with Draisaitl or McDavid, but it isn’t quite fair to judge his point totals too harshly as they stand in his career.
Some positive stats are his 56 hits which is fourth among rostered forwards on the Oilers, and his shots blocked per 60 which is second among rostered forwards. Both of which are stats that show heart and effort, a huge part of the game of hockey. Holloway reminds me of Connor Zary; a guy his age who maybe doesn’t have elite talent, but who can go into the corner, come out with the puck, and can still put the puck into the net. If you switched Zary and Holloway straight across, I think you’d find Holloway would be able to do what Zary is doing this year.
Stats according to Moneypuck.com and capFriendly.com
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
