Justin Holl: "It Just Seems Like a Team That's Really on the Rise, and I Want to Be a Part of It"

Justin Holl discusses acclimating to his new home in Detroit, moving on from Toronto, the art of defending in the modern NHL, and the new reduced ice sheet at 3M Arena at Mariucci

After eight seasons in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, defenseman Justin Holl is starting fresh in Detroit, having signed a three-year, $10.2 million deal to join the Red Wings on July 1st.  

As Holl tells it, the early signs out of his new home have all been positive.

"Things have been great," the 31-year-old Minnesotan tells The Hockey News after Wednesday's practice.  "All the guys have been very welcoming.  I didn't know anybody when I came here, but they've been very welcoming.  And it's a really nice group in there.  Being in Michigan is very similar to being in Minnesota.  Midwest feels pretty familiar."

In Toronto, Holl was a regular focal point in the crazed discourse around the Maple Leafs' inability to embark on a deep playoff run, becoming something of a whipping boy in the local media for perceived defensive vulnerability.  Back in July, he mentioned that the market forced him to develop "thick skin," an attribute he can carry with him a few hours southwest by car to Detroit.

Despite all that noise and with a bit more time to reflect, Holl can say that he looks back fondly on his years with the Leafs: "I really enjoyed my time in Toronto.  We had great teams, great guys on the team.  We experienced a lot success as a team, so I have nothing but good things to say about Toronto.  That being said, this is a business, and I'm very happy to be in Detroit, and I think we have a good looking squad for next year."

Holl was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks back in 2010, but after he split time between the team's ECHL and AHL affiliates in 2014-15, the organization decided to move on from a player it had selected in the second round.

Kyle Dubas, then Toronto's AHL GM, was enamored enough with Holl to sign him to an AHL deal for the '15-16 season, which the defenseman leveraged into an NHL deal for the following season.

Still, despite that relative breakthrough, it would take three more seasons of toiling with the AHL Marlies and the occasional cup of coffee with the big club, before Holl caught on as a full-time NHLer in 2019-20.  That season, he played 68 games in the show, picking up 18 points and +13 rating along the way.

Over the ensuing three campaigns, Holl played his way into becoming a coveted enough NHL defenseman to ink a multi-year UFA contract on July 1st.  Still, he carries with him a sense that all that can slip away far quicker than it took to earn his opportunity.

"I never feel comfortable," Holl says.  "There's so much competition in the league that you're always fighting for a spot, you're always fighting to prove your worth.  So for me, it's just trying to be the best player I can be every day, and there's no time to take your foot off the gas.  It's always trying to be focused on competing and being as good as you can be."

Having spent the entirety of his NHL career to date in the Atlantic Division (with the exception of the one-year-only Canadian division in the aberrant '20-21 season), Holl is as familiar as anyone with the Red Wings' gradual progress in recent years.  

"Every time we played them last year, maybe the last couple years, they've been a tough opponent, and they've looked like a really good team," the defenseman says of his new outfit. "They've been around .500 in those years, and the NHL is a hard league to win every night, but there's still a lot of talent on the roster, and then the moves that we made this summer, I think just increases our potential. I think we look great on paper, but it's gonna be up to us to put it all together."

That potential, coupled with Detroit's arsenal of touted prospects, is what excited Holl about joining the project that is Steve Yzerman and Derek Lalonde's Red Wings.

"I just feel like they're a team on the rise, on the come up," he explains.  "There's been a lot of guys that have impressed me in camp and their high picks from the recent years, so you know they have a lot of guys in the pipeline. And then the moves they made this summer as well, it just seems like a team that's really on the rise, and I want to be a part of it."

When asked how he would characterize his game to someone who wasn't familiar, Holl said, "I think I can bring a good defensive presence. I can drive play, move the puck up into the offensive zone and try to play there as much as possible.  PK.  Just be all around more of a defensive focus, but a two-way guy."

His new head coach offered a similar assessment of where Holl can provide value for the Red Wings.  "It's his go-to the penalty kill," Lalonde said Thursday morning. "He's steady back there. We just want him to defend, make simple plays, not play outside himself. And he's committed to the penalty kill. He's got good instincts, and he'll eat a puck."

To Holl, taking pride in his work on the defensive side of the puck works a bit like golf.  The less time you spending golfing during a given round, the better your score.

"Let's just say you're defending," Holl offers.  "If you can kill a play in the D zone, then you can get it in the forwards' hands, and you can get it up from the offensive zone and that way you're not defending as much.  So I guess it's kind of ironic in some ways, but being a good defender maybe makes it so you don't defend as much.  It might be a puck in the corner.  That's a 50/50 puck, if you win your battle and win that puck, all of a sudden your playing offense instead of defense for your shift."

Lalonde, meanwhile, emphasizes that while it might not carry the same prestige  or glamor as the man advantage, the PK is more foundational to determining a team's floor.

"A coach told me a few years ago, and it really stuck with me, you can be successful without your power play for stretches, and that's been proven," Lalonde said. "Teams will go dry with the power plays and still find ways to win hockey games, but you have no chance if you're really struggling with the penalty kill."

With that in mind, Holl may prove an essential piece to the puzzle should Detroit fight its way back into the postseason this year.  

The Red Wings took a major step forward a year ago short-handed, jumping from dead last in the league in '21-22 at a 73.78% kill rate to 78.31% last season.  However, even with that improvement, Detroit remained about a half percentage point below league average (78.69%) and almost ten full percentage points below the league-leading Boston Bruins (87.28%).

A fundamental truth of hockey at any level is that it's awfully hard to win if you lose the special teams battle.  With Holl entering the fold, the Red Wings should have a much easier time handling one half of the special teams ledger.

Before wrapping with Holl, I had to ask the University of Minnesota product about a different revelation of the offseason that was: the Gophers' decision to shrink the massive ice sheet at 3M Arena at Mariucci to accommodate added luxury seating along the glass.  

"I loved the ocean, the huge ice there," Holl said.  "I loved it personally because you have so much time and space with the puck.  It might make it a little harder to defend, but that's okay.  I think in terms of postseason play, because when you're playing when it matters, it's gonna be NHL sized ice, so it's probably good for the team to be playing on a smaller rink throughout the year just so they're used to it."

Despite his understanding of the choice, Holl concurs that it was something of a shame to let go of what was "such an iconic ice sheet."