Not sure how this became a Holl thing. Seems like the forums turned into taking pot shots at everyone’s favorite targets.
I love AlJo and have been rooting for him for a couple of seasons now but he is what he is. He’s a good depth D who’s hopefully going to be really nice, age-well, middle pair LHD who can flex to the right if needed and can mesh with a handful of styles. He is basically … Olli Mattaa with functioning legs and a bit more of a shot.
Mattaa was rendered redundant by AlJo and it was kind of obviously in the handful of games he had slowed down even more and even directly paired with AlJo, the difference in their speed and ability was pretty obvious. A lot of the qualities I liked in Mattaa, AlJo has so it was an easy trade in bottom pair LHDs. We didn’t need two of them.
Holl isn’t the question here, who’s taking 2nd pair RHD minutes and doing… okay. Swapping back and forth with Petry, etc. the issue is both of them are fine 3rd pair, neither is sufficient at 2nd. I don’t think that’s either of their faults.
It’s why I still hope that AlJo can work with Seider as a smart, positionally sound LHD who complements Seiders talent, and we can move Ed back to pair with Holl in pair two to find some balance in the top 4 instead of overloading the top pair and playing Russian roulette with the remaining pieces. Chiarot / Petry is not bad as Pair 3 and should do pretty well and have a history together from the Habs. Gus a depth and PP only really.
Still missing a true shutdown 2nd Pair RHD and hopefully we’ll be close enough at the trade deadline where we can get one and bridge for a year or two.
All and all, a nice move