Oilers forward Dylan Holloway has been cleared to return but he won’t be suiting up in Edmonton for the time being. The team announced that Holloway has been activated off LTIR but he has been assigned to AHL Bakersfield.
The 22-year-old has been limited to just 14 games this season after suffering a knee injury in mid-November. Holloway has also dealt with wrist and shoulder injuries in the past which have certainly slowed down his development.
While in Edmonton’s lineup this season, Holloway struggled offensively as he tallied just one goal while averaging a little over 11 minutes a night. That ATOI is actually an improvement on a year ago when he averaged just 9:35 per contest while notching just nine points in 51 games.
For someone who was a first-round pick back in 2020 (14th overall) and was an impactful scorer at Wisconsin, the lack of production has to be some cause for concern.
With that in mind, a stint with the Condors certainly makes some sense. It would allow Holloway to get his skating legs back under him while also playing much higher up the lineup than he would have had he remained with Edmonton. It could also give him an opportunity to play his natural center position after primarily playing on the wing with the Oilers.
From a long-term development standpoint, Holloway contributing as a middleman would be a nice outcome for Edmonton but one that they’ll need to be patient for with how much time he has missed already.
Worth noting from a salary cap perspective is that this transaction takes Edmonton out of using LTIR altogether. Accordingly, they’re now in a position to try to bank at least a little bit of cap space between now and the trade deadline, barring further injuries throwing a wrinkle into those plans.
If that cap space isn’t used, it would reduce the amount of the carryover penalty from Connor Brown’s games played bonus.
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