New York Rangers: Is Nick Holden having a better season than last year?

Defenseman Nick Holden was a pleasant surprise for the New York Rangers last season. The veteran tallied 34 points in 80 games in his first season with the Rangers. Since being moved up the team’s first pair in the beginning of the season, has he improved?

The New York Rangers probably didn’t think they would be getting much when they called up the Colorado Avalanche and the two teams agreed to send Holden to New York in return for a 2017 fourth round pick.

However, the Rangers had to be pleased with his production last season.

But, for some reason, this year seems to be different for Holden, mostly due to expectations. Some may say he has been a liability, while others like Rangers’ head coach Alain Vigneault said he has been a dependable partner for captain Ryan McDonagh.

So, let’s take a look and see if Holden has been better or worse than last year.

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Holden had eight goals and 13 assists (20 points) at this point last season. This year, Holden has only compiled a total of eight points. That’s definitely a drop off considering his goal total from the previous year equals his total from this season.

While Holden’s offensive output has been down this year, it hasn’t hurt the team too badly. He has never really been asked to be a top scoring defenseman, especially with the likes of Brady Skjei, Kevin Shattenkirk, and McDonagh on the blue line. So, it may be unfair to fault Holden for his offensive dropoff.

As far as his defensive acumen is concerned, the 30-year old had a rough start to the season. This led him to be a healthy scratch a few times.  But, he has been a mainstay in the lineup recently and hasn’t been healthy scratched since the team’s game against the Golden Knights way back on Halloween.

Holden’s value defensively may get overlooked because when he screws up it is very visible, but overall, he has played pretty steadily with McDonagh this season.

Holden has also only tallied six penalty minutes in 37 games. This should be a bright spot with the Rangers collecting a lot of penalty minutes lately, especially on the backend. He always finishes his checks and is a willing shot blocker.

Opinions on Holden’s play from this year to last probably will depend on who you ask. But, he has been a pretty solid paired with McDonagh when you look at the numbers.

Holden’s value may also be seen in his contract. He only carries a $1,650,000 cap hit for this season, an amount that isn’t too bad.

To put the contract amount into perspective, here are a two defensemen that have played around the same amount of games as Holden with similar numbers.

New Jersey Devils  Sami Vatanen has played in 32 games and has 10 total points. His contract carries a $4,875,00 cap hit this season.

Columbus Blue Jacket David Savard has played in 43 games with eight total points. His contract has a cap hit of $4,250,000 for this season.

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When you look at Holden’s production compared to some other players similar to him, he stands out due to his contract. His play also hasn’t been as bad as some make it out to be, leading to his play this year being right around where it was last year.