NHL Draft: 5 Reasons To Fall In Love With Alexander Holtz

4. Holtz Has Great Vision

Call this whatever you want. Say Alexander Holtz has great vision, or maybe you want to attribute it to his “hockey IQ”, or just call it a playmaking ability. Whatever it’s called, Holtz is great at it, and it’s an underrated part of his game.

He has the uncanny ability to find the open man. Analysts fawn over his shot and sniper ability, but the fact that he doesn’t have to lean on it means a lot. He has better-than-Kyle-Palmieri upside. This kid can score at will, but it’s the fact that a team can’t just throw a defenseman out of position to stop him. He gets the puck to his teammates with accuracy.

This is going to be what makes him a great player overall. It’s being able to play above your scouting report. Teams will be focusing on his scoring ability, but his ability to get the puck to the open man might lead to more goals overall. Holtz is just a goal machine. We will get to why he can score a little later, but we can’t talk about his prospects in the NHL without talking about this.

Being able to see the whole ice with the puck on his stick is something a lot of young prospects struggle with. Other prospects get tunnel vision. Holtz is able to consider multiple different outcomes for the play in an instant.