Who Will the Montreal Canadiens Select in the First Round?

I must admit, being surrounded by North American media, more articles and scouting reports on players who play here catch my attention. Thus, I am not quite as familiar with Alexander Holtz and his Swedish compatriots as I am with other players in this draft. However, what I have seen of Holtz (3 full games to go along with game recaps and highlight reels) has consistently left me impressed.

The 6’0″, 183 lbs Swede is the most highly-touted pure goalscorer of his draft class and outperformed his Swedish counterparts Lucas Raymond and Noel Gunler on the scoresheet in the SHL this past season, accumulating 9 goals and 7 assists in 35 games against men (0.46 PPG). In the three games he played in the Swedish u20 league this season, he scored 7 goals and added 2 assists.

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Holtz’s SHL point output matched that of two highly touted 2019 draftees in defenceman Victor Soderstrom (11th overall Arizona) and forward Nils Hoglander (40th overall Vancouver) and was just one point behind Dominik Bokk (25th overall St. Louis 2018) who was the centrepiece of the package that brought Justin Faulk to the Blues just a season ago. This is good company to be in, considering that Holtz is a year younger than two of them and two years the junior of the other.

However, when looking beyond the cold, hard output, Holtz struck me as a determined and effective player in the little ice time he was given as a bottom-six contributor. He has a wicked shot, and not only employs it to beat unscreened goaltender by picking out the top corner, but he also uses it to mesmerize defenders into opening dangerous passing lanes, which he then exploits. He is a fairly mobile player with good skating but does not have a blistering top speed or acceleration.

One area that he will need to improve is his physicality, just like most 18-year-olds draftees. He has a really sturdy frame, but was outmuscled a little bit too often for my liking; however, he played against men while the top CHL prospects did not, so he may very well be on the fast track to improve this area of his game.

Whichever team drafts him will get a smart player who will be very dangerous on the powerplay and could very well put up 35+ goals in six years’ time. Imagine having Caufield on the first line and powerplay unit a few years down the road with Holtz taking on the second line duties, quite a lethal one-two punch down the right side; left-handed defenders will have some nightmares.