Re: Justin Holl's time and performance in Detroit - success or failure?
Holl was a slightly above average defender without the puck. The second he had the puck he had about 2s before he panicked and would just fire it up the boards, or try to make a dumb pass. And there's nothing wrong with the "fire it up the boards" thought, but he wouldn't look to see if it was the right play. So soemtimes he'd fire it up the boards right to an opponent. And in that case, the opponent gets the puck, no forwards are thinking defense, Holl and his partner are usually not close enough to close the gap, and it turns into an extended shift in the defensive zone.
In the offensive zone...he was mindblowing to watch. In a bad way. He'd make the safe play randomly, think and poorly execute the extra pass play, or deer in the headlights and do nothing play.
Will he do well...He will not live up to a $3.4m deal in 2023-24. With the cap raising, his value also slightly does. To me though, he is someone you can replace with a cheap option if you have a strong scouting team. His talent and skill level isn't a hard thing to scout, but you need to physically see that type of player play. He won't show up on stat sheets. He wont' show up in highlight packs. But he will get coaches praise, and a PK scout will like him.
Holl lacks the ability to take a puck off someone and get it to the forwards. But you know, it's not like transition skills are highly sought after right?
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Trocheck, Horvat, Kopitar
LW: Hughes (C), Dubois (C), McCann (C)
RW: Batherson (LW), Ovechkin (LW), Rackell (C,LW,RW), Duchene (C)
D: Makar, Bouchard, Fox, Seider, Werenski
Util:
G: Vasilevskiy, Thompson, Kuemper
IR+: Tippet (LW,RW)