Wait what? Did you watch any of the USNDP players that season? There is no argument to be made that Hughes, Zegras, Boldy, Caufield, York and Knight weren’t all bonafide top 25 picks. Each one was incredibly different which made them so dominant. They were all elite in their development before the program and all continue to be producing at excellent rates on separate teams now. In fact if the draft was redone today most of them would go even higher than they did originally.
I’m not sure what you are trying to get at with Perry, Schremp, Gagner and Kane as they obviously didn’t all play together. Perry was always a dominant prospect and has been a fantastic NHLer. Schremp didn’t have any of those 3 on his team when he had his huge OHL season and even then he had elite 1 on 1 skill but his attitude, below average skating and offence only mindset is what held him back. Even then he was a relatively productive player when he was given a chance. Gagner and Kane were an elite duo but to suggest that Gagner only went top 10 because of Kane is crazy. Gagner had amazing puck skills at a young age and had 49 pts iirc in the nhl as a rookie. What held him back was his weak skating, softness, below average defensive play and poor face offs. The talent was there. He produced well in the nhl overall.
Holloway also doesn’t play with Cole Caufield typically. This has been a gripe as people would like to see them together more often. Holloway’s line mates are typically Ahcan and Brock Caufield (Cole’s older, less talented brother). Weissbach also isn’t a third wheel like you imply as he has been a strong offensive contributor at every level that he has played. He’s having his best season in his 4th NCAA which isn’t unexpected but has never had less than 22 pts at this level. Are his numbers inflated due to his teammates? Yes but he’s a strong player at that level and often stands out in games. He’s a ppg player for Wisconsin is Caufield/Holloway aren’t there.
Anyways, back to Holloway. The reason Holloway is dominating the NCAA isn’t because of his offensive skill like some seem to think lately. He produces due to his incredible work ethic (he outworks every player on the ice), his elite skating (he may be the second fastest player on the Oilers if he was with the team right now), his physicality/strength (he is more developed than most players in their late teens/early 20s) as well as his amazing face off ability.
People see the numbers and assume he must have amazing offensive abilities which in reality it’s his pure offensive skills that are his greatest weaknesses. His vision/playmaking will not stand out as anything more than average-above average and he has a decent release on his shot but he’s far from a sniper. He also struggles to create in traffic or create separation as his individual puck skills are pretty average overall (individual puck skill is his biggest weakness of them all). He also lacks creativity in that he gets the puck in the neutral zone and wants to just skate full speed straight at defenders but doesn’t have the skills to maneuver around them unless he shields the puck and drives the outside with his speed.
With all that being said he has had an excellent development curve since his bantam days ~6 seasons ago and continues to prove people wrong. To assume he will be an elite nhl contributor would be silly but I never like to bet against players with production and an incredible work ethic. It remains to be seen if relying on physical tools will allow him to be productive against bigger, stronger and smarter NHLers but hey if Lucic and Maroon can be productive so can he. He actually reminds me a bit of a young OHL Kassian. Physical tools, average to a little above average puck skills, great skater (Holloway is way better skater though). The major difference is Holloway doesn’t do stupid things on the ice/cross the line and Holloway has a much better/consistent work ethic. A more disciplined and harder working Kassian is fantastic option for Mcdavid in the future.
I hope this post helps anyone who doesn’t get to see Holloway and/or hasn’t followed his development over the years!
