New Jersey Devils: Alex Holtz Might Make More Sense With Nico Hischier

The New Jersey Devils drafted Alexander Holtz to play on Jack Hughes‘s wing. This is just something everyone saw coming. Jack Hughes is a player who wants to find the open man and facilitate. Holtz is a finisher in the ultimate sense. He’s proven that at an extremely high level with the Utica Comets this season. He has 14 goals and 29 points in 25 AHL games this season. His per-game numbers are some of the best in the minor leagues.

This has many questioning why the Devils still have Holtz in the AHL. The way he’s playing now, one would think he’s “above” the AHL. It’s definitely best to keep him in a league where he can get used to a playoff push with a team that’s winning a lot more than it’s losing. Sending Holtz back with the Devils doesn’t make a lot of sense right now.

Just look at how Holtz performed with the Devils. Of the players who’ve played at least 50 minutes this season, Holtz is last on the Devils in CorsiFor% at 5v5, second-worst xGF%, and second-worst high-danger chance percentage. He had zero goals in seven games, which is the one thing he was on the team to do.

It was clear Holtz is better than he showed in the NHL. Maybe it was nerves, or maybe he was trying to get used to a Lindy Ruff system that seems to be different than the Kevin Dineen system. He works better when the game slows down, but Ruff’s system wants players to speed things up and put pressure on opposing defenses.

This brings us to our point. Maybe Alex Holtz isn’t meant to be the future winger of Jack Hughes for the next decade. Maybe he’s made better to be on the right of Nico Hischier. Hischier is more of a traditional center built like they were in the 80s and 90s. He wants to do just about everything with no flash. Scoring is nice when Hischier does it, but he wants to do everything just as well as he shoots. This means he is always looking to make his teammates better.

The Devils might think the same way. They had Holtz play a total of 57 seconds with Jack Hughes this season. It’s likely because the time he was in the NHL coincided with Hughes being hurt. He spent 25 minutes with Hischier and 38 minutes away from him. None of the numbers are great, but they were much better with Hischier than they were without. (Thanks to Natural Stat Trick for the numbers.)

Holtz needed this time he had in the AHL. He was floundering in the NHL, and he needed to rebuild his confidence. Let him go on a run in the minors, then let him come into the NHL next season with a new slate. That slate should be with the Devils captain.