The New York Rangers traded veteran defenseman Nick Holden to the Boston Bruins Tuesday afternoon.
The Nick Holden era has come to a close at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers started their active trade deadline by sending Holden up to Boston. The trade landed the team a third round pick and defenseman Rob O’Gara.
During his season and a half with the Rangers, Holden was out of his depth. The coaching staff asked way too much of a depth defenseman and he was constantly drowning. General Manager Jeff Gorton originally acquired Holden from the Colorado Avalanche for a fourth round pick.
At the time, the then 28-year-old had never played more than 19 minutes a night and was used to starting around 50% of the time in the offensive zone. However, it was the words of Patrick Roy, the former Jack Adams winner, that really swayed Rangers coach Alain Vigneault.
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That was where the problem was for Holden’s time with the team. The head coach misjudged his talent and this season, it caused him to fall off a cliff. There is a way to get productive play out of Holden, but it was not Vigneault’s heavy usage.
2016-2017
The first season in New York was a career best for Holden. The left handed defenseman set a career high in points, goals and assists primarily playing on the second defensive pair. On top of the solid offensive numbers he was an okay possession player even though he started mostly in the defensive zone.
Once his offensive production dried up in the second half of the season, he became a net negative. The wheels came off for Holden during the team’s post season run last year.
The defenseman always tried to join the rush and got caught cheating up. It is okay for a defenseman to occasionally join the rush if the situation permits. However, getting caught out of position multiple times per game and giving up odd man rushes is unacceptable.
In the second round against Ottawa, Holden capitulated and was one of the determining factors in the Rangers losing. The Staal/Holden played to the tune of a minus four in game two’s disastrous overtime loss. Even worse, they played over the Brendan Smith and Brady Skjei pair which was thriving last season.
It is not a stretch to say that if Holden were used a little more conservatively the Rangers could have won that series. The system breakdowns on the defense were the biggest problem last year and a major concern for this year.
2017-2018
Last year’s Rangers definitely over achieved and played above their means. Going into this season, the expectation to win carried over. The defense, the biggest flaw from last years team, was totally revamped in the off-season. Signing Kevin Shattenkirk and acquiring Tony DeAngelo was going to get the defense up to speed for the modern NHL.
The only thing that carried over from last season was the terrible defense forcing Henrik Lundqvist to stand on his head. At the forefront of this defensive mess was once again Nick Holden who was not even in the opening night lineup. The veteran watched the season opener October seventh against the Colorado Avalanche from the press box.
At the start of the year it was Tony DeAngelo in the lineup, however this did not last long. The young defenseman from New Jersey was an absolute nightmare in the defensive zone. That was the opening that Holden needed to crack the lineup and stay there. Not only did he crack the lineup, he went from the press box to the top defensive pair.
On the top defensive pair Holden only dragged McDonagh down with him. As a whole the Rangers are significantly worse this year than last year and it featuring Holden in a prominent role is one of the root causes. There is an upside to his game, it’s just against the other team’s best players he was overwhelmed.
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The Rangers tenure of Nick Holden only lasted 133 games and it was not pretty. However, in a more sheltered role with the Boston Bruins, he should be a serviceable defenseman. His time in New York was a C+ at best, and C pluses do not fair well against A pluses on the ice.