Throwing back to my “depth assessment” piece (that I wrote way back when we were not even sure if the Ducks season was over yet) we know that the Ducks are desperately in need of three things.
- Right shooting players – regardless of position
- Goal scorers and pure snipers
- Power Play specialist defencemen
Alexander Holtz has been the vocal minority choice among Ducks fans for a good long while now because he checks two out of the three of these prerequisites. Now that it has been confirmed that Anaheim will be selecting sixth and thus will have no shot at Lafreniere, Byfield or Stutzle – the focus has shifted to a group of players likely to fall into that next tier of selections after the top three are taken. Of that group of players (which largely consists of Raymond, Holtz, Drysdale, Rossi and Perfetti) – Holtz makes the most sense from a needs perspective.
I wrote that the Right Wing is now the Ducks most critical point of need given the trade-deadline departures of Ondrej Kase, Devin Shore & Daniel Sprong and the fact that Holtz is a natural right-side winger regarded as a pure sniper with one of the best shots in the draft makes it feel like a match made in heaven.
He ranks second among European skaters behind Tim Stutzle and sizes up at 6’0″ 183 lbs. Spending the majority of the year in the SHL he saw 35 games of action, scoring nine goals and seven assists against grown men. At the World Juniors he finished with five points in seven games on the bronze medal-winning Swedish squad. In a rare three-game stint in the lower-tiered SuperElit league he put up seven goals and nine points. Yep.
Shot
As stated, his shot is the best part of his game. Based on clips I watched – he could wire it from absolutely anywhere in the offensive zone. His wrist shot is devastatingly accurate with a deceptive release that most Goaltenders appear to have trouble picking up. More than adept at the slap-shot and the one-timer also, Holtz is just an all-around beast at finishing plays.
Skill
Puck handling is a massively underrated part of his skill-set. He can dangle with the best of them to create himself a chance with a wide array of flashy stick-handling moves and even when it seems like he has been stripped of the puck, suddenly appears with it out of a scrum of players attempting to shut him down. He is not afraid to attempt to split opposing defenses one on two and has great reflexes to avoid oncoming hits.
Playmaking
When he isn’t touching twine with his blistering shot, he is threading tape to tape passes through traffic. Holtz knows when to make the pass instead of taking the shot. His vision and poise with the puck lend another element to his game that makes him more than just a one-dimensional goal scorer: he will wait for an opening or fire it all in one motion. He is blessed with supreme offensive tools.
Speed
Perhaps the one weakness in his game that has prevented him from entering the top three conversation is his skating. It’s not terrible, but it’s not explosive either. He isn’t forcing defenses to back-up with his speed or losing checkers with his edge-work. Instead, he relies more on his stick-handling to get himself out of a bind or create opportunities. Interestingly, Arthur Kaliyev had much the same knocks on his game at last year’s draft while being touted as perhaps the best shot and goal-scorer in last year’s class. Skating can be improved by coaching so I don’t see it as a significant concern.
Defense
The other knock – again similar to Kaliyev – is his two way game. Partly due to his skating, he can get beat wide or lack the necessary first step to close a gap when on the defensive side of the puck. Albeit, he was playing against men, but still a lack of size did not help with his defensive game either. However, bulking up and adding strength is something that he has noted to be already be doing and improving his defensive awareness is something he wants to improve first and foremost.
Conclusion
Dropping from a possible fifth selection to sixth at the recent draft lottery could hurt much more than most originally anticipated if it comes down to the Red Wings and Senators snapping up Raymond and Holtz at fourth and fifth, but that also assumes nobody takes Drysdale or Rossi in the top five.
The Ducks badly need goal scoring and Holtz is that. Combining him with Zegras could give the Ducks a dynamic duo not seen since the Kariya – Selanne era.
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