Nick Holden
Another player that has seen his trade value plummet since last season is Nick Holden. Patrick Roy’s “best defenseman” had a climactic start to his New York Rangers career. Dressing in 80 games, Holden recorded a career-best in both goals (11) and assists (23). However, eight of those goals came in the first half and Holden’s game noticeably slowed down as the season progressed.
It’s been much of the same for Holden to start this season. His second-half troubles have carried over into the 2017-18 campaign. Adding fuel to the frustration surrounding him has been his placement in the Rangers’ top-six defensive group. Predictably, playing against opponent’s top competition has been a detriment to Holden’s game.
While he will never be the player that showed up for the first half of the 2016-17 season, he could be of value as a bottom-pairing defenseman on another team. Unfortunately, his coach’s inability to realize this has resulted in a six-game sample size that does nothing to audition his skills for a potential trade.