Justin Holl's not making the Detroit Red Wings big club, right? Maybe they can still trade him, but the waters are murky, considering his contract.
No, Holl ain't making a team whose blue line already has about eight hopefuls, and the top-four's easily filled with Moritz Seider, Ben Chiarot, Simon Edvinsson, and Albert Johansson. That leaves Holl scratching and clawing for third-pairing minutes alongside Jacob Bernard-Docker, Travis Hamonic, and Erik Gustafsson.
And going into the season, if I had to rank the bottom four defensemen slated to be in Detroit, Holl's coming in last place here. Bernard-Docker's young and he's got potential, while Hamonic brings leadership and experience.
No, Erik Gustafsson didn't do much at all a season ago, but at least he's shown at times that he can play, even if that consistency hasn't emerged in Hockeytown. As for Holl, he's shown a physical nature in the past, and even put up 20-plus minutes a game back in Toronto, but he was also the product of some good Maple Leafs teams.
As for his time in Hockeytown? He got 73 games last season because there was no one else, seeing more ice time by default. If that's the case again this season, then he must step up his play.
Believe it or not, there are some positives on Justin Holl if you dig deep
While last season gave us what the real Justin Holl looked like, flashback to 2023-24, and at least you'll see a player who was more physical, with 59 body checks in 38 contests and 39 blocks to show for it.
Shift gears to his advanced stats, and his on-ice shooting percentage at even strength was a career-best 13.0 and his on-ice save percentage sat at 92.3. So, there's some hope here for Holl, if he can be that 14-15-minute player, if needed, and contribute to both sequences and when the puck's on opponents' sticks.
But, we also need to remember that he snagged those numbers across less than a half-season of play, while skating just 15:05 of average total ice time. That doesn't pack much of a dent, and it only indicates that Holl could be solid when he's spending at least half his time off the ice.
Give him 73 games, and he's giving you something closer to what we saw last season. Bad play, bad positioning, pretty much bad everything. So, with Holl, there's little to like here if he's with the big club this fall, but at least the Wings have plenty of patchwork players to where they can "hide him" either in the press box or the AHL.