Digging deeper into Alex Holtz' game vs. Philadelphia

The Devils top forward prospect garnered a lot of praise for scoring against the Flyers – but his showing wasn't perfect.

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By JP Gambatese (@JP_Gambatese)

Alex Holtz, after scoring against the Flyers in his first preseason game of the year, has been universally praised by the media and coaching staff as someone making strides in his game.

His first showing, despite adding a tally to the scoresheet, was far from perfect.

We’ll start with stats. Holtz logged 19:55 total, with 17:16 coming at even strength. He was being double shifted on the first and fourth lines so he clearly earned the trust of the coaches early on. Holtz scored a goal on his lone even-strength shot while adding two more on the man advantage.

To scoreboard watchers, that sounds like a pretty good outing. It doesn’t look as good beneath the surface. Holtz posted a 55.54% xGF% against Philly, which, again, looks good from the outside. 

Relative to other Devils players, though, Holtz ranked third lowest on the team among forwards, above only Josh Filmon and Ryan Schmelzer. His most common linemates – Nico Hischier and Timo Meier – posted xGF% of 76.44% and 73.52% respectively.

As Todd mentioned, this is in part because he spent time with Folmon and Schmelzer. It’s still not something you want to see from a top prospect who is likely playing in a top-9 role come October. 

My biggest gripe with Holtz isn’t his statistical profile; you can’t reach any real conclusions through one game.

The issue that I saw was something that’s been plaguing Holtz since he was drafted – thinking the game at an NHL level. He seemed to be a tad bit slow at decision making; a bit late to an open puck, sometimes not getting himself open in the offensive zone.