Welcome to my annual player review series, where I dive into the Edmonton Oilers season player-by-player. We’ll look back at the season that was, what kind of impact each player had, and what we could see from them next season. You can read about the analytics behind my analysis here.

It should be a pretty easy decision for the Edmonton Oilers to match the offer sheet the St. Louis Blues sent his way. Holloway battled through a broken kneecap and a shoulder issue last year, but still got into the lineup for a very effective 38 games. His scoring rates were modest, but his individual scoring chance rates were rock solid.
But his underlying numbers? Home runs. With Holloway on the ice, the Oilers were dominant, controlling overwhelming majorities of the shot attempt share, scoring chance share and expected goal share, despite the actual goal rate falling just short of breaking even.
In fact, his shot attempts against per hour and scoring chance against per hour rates were the best among any player on the Oilers last year. Simply put: when Holloway was on the ice, opposing offences were choked out. A lot of that was from the work he put in, too, contributing defence at a five percent rate above league average, according to HockeyViz’s chart.
While Holloway himself shot at a 9.3 percent rate at 5v5, right around the average rate, his on-ice shooting percentage was 6.1, nearly two percent below the Oilers average rate. During the regular season, is most common linemates were Ryan McLeod (214 mins), Connor Brown (124 mins), Corey Perry (105 mins), Warren Foegele (91 mins), Derek Ryan (71 mins) and Leon Draisaitl (45 mins). This group, beyond Draisaitl, of course, had more than their fair share of scoring issues throughout the course of the year.
If, for example, his 5v5 on-ice shooting percentage was at the Oilers’ average, that would’ve seen the team score 17.7 goals with him on the ice, leading to a swing of five goals in favour of Edmonton. That’s not a small amount.
Those underlying numbers that were so great saw some dips in the post-season, but it’s worth noting that Holloway — especially as the playoffs progressed — saw more ice-time against tougher competition playing alongside Leon Draisaitl in the top-six, but his own scoring rates had a nice uptick.
Should he return to Edmonton next season, I’d expect him to take a big step forward at 23 years old.

DYLAN HOLLOWAY’S CAREER SO FAR

Regular SeasonPlayoffs
SeasonTeamLgeGPGAPtsPIM+/-GPGAPtsPIM
2016-17
Okotoks Oilers
AJHL
2
0
0
0
0
—
—
—
—
—
2017-18
Okotoks Oilers
AJHL
28
11
16
27
16
6
4
0
4
4
2018-19
Okotoks Oilers
AJHL
53
40
48
88
56
7
8
3
11
24
2019-20
U. of Wisconsin
Big-10
35
8
9
17
49
-3
2020-21
U. of Wisconsin
Big-10
23
11
24
35
19
10
2021-22
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
33
8
14
22
16
-4
5
2
2
4
4
2021-22
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
—
—
—
—
—
—
1
0
0
0
0
2022-23
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
51
3
6
9
27
0
—
—
—
—
—
2022-23
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
12
7
3
10
4
3
2
0
0
0
2
2023-24
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
38
6
3
9
29
-1
25
5
2
7
8
2023-24
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
18
10
6
16
12
7
—
—
—
—
—
NHL Totals
89
9
9
18
56
26
5
2
7
8

PLAYERS REVIEWED SO FAR

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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