MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Don’t mistake Dylan Holloway the wrong way. The St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] forward is beyond grateful to be healthy and skating 100 percent for the first time since what turned out to be an ugly injury that derailed a fantastic first season in the Gateway City. But after putting up 63 points (26 goals, 37 assists) in 77 games in his first full NHL season after coming to the Blues via an offer sheet that was not matched by the Edmonton Oilers [http://thn.com/edmonton] – along with defenseman Philip Broberg – in August of 2024, the 23-year-old first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft (No. 14 overall) feels like there’s more to be had. Plenty more. “I’ve got pretty lofty goals for myself,” Holloway said Thursday when the Blues opened training camp. “When you kind of set out to be a hockey player, you just want to make it to the NHL and now that I’ve been in the NHL for a bit, I want everything I can get. I’ve got some pretty lofty goals for myself. I want to be a top player in this league one day. It’s a goal that I know takes a lot of work, but something that I’m going to strive for. “Last year I was fortunate enough to get some bounces and things were going in, but at the same time too, I felt pretty confident in my ability. After a big summer this summer, I feel even more confident. I’m excited to get things going and even prove it to myself and prove to everybody that I can be a top guy in this league.” Holloway didn’t go as far as saying he wants to be a Connor McDavid or a Nathan MacKinnon or any of the other top-end echelon players in the NHL today, he just feels he can be among them. Some pretty lofty goals from what appears to be a very confident player, and why wouldn’t he be after things finally took off for him last season, given an opportunity in a full time role after 89 games over two seasons in limited roles with the Oilers. But not only is there a team that’s motivated heading into a new season, there’s a player that’s also motivated, especially since he was rendered helpless and not being able to perform with his teammates in that excruciating seven-game series loss against the Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg] in the Western Conference First Round. “There’s not much I can do at that point. It sucked,” Holloway said. “You go all year, the team was working so hard to make the playoffs, we go on that really special run and it takes everybody. It was such a good environment in the room, a good vibe. To all of the sudden to not be a part of that was definitely a big shock and it sucked. You care so much throughout the year and you care so much come playoff time. To not be able to put your body on the line with the guys was tough, but I kind of had to come to peace with those terms and try to be a good teammate.” It fell off the rails for Holloway April 3 in a 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins [http://thn.com/pittsburgh]. The result was tearing the oblique off the hip bone. It required surgery and his season was essentially done in an instant. “That was brutal, that sucked,” Holloway said. “I guess there’s no way to sugarcoat it. It was awful. I had to come to peace with the terms of not playing. The only way I could help out is just be a good teammate and support the boys. That’s what I tried to do.” A fairytale season with a brutal ending, but now Holloway is 100 percent and looking as sharp as ever. “It looks like he didn't even miss anything. It was good,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “His second and third effort, I think is contagious. He was really good today. It was a pleasant, pleasant day to see him back out there.” Holloway opened camp skating with Brayden Schenn and 2025 first-round pick Justin Carbonneau looking to pick up where he left off. “You always need guys with high work ethic and high compete levels, and he definitely has that,” Schenn said of Holloway. “Secondly, he’s dynamic, he’s a good skater, he’s a good puck-handler, he has a heck of a release and a shot. “I think just the biggest thing with those guys if I even remember when I was young is like you get a chance early, maybe it doesn’t go the way you want in Edmonton and now you get a chance here and it’s a completely different slate with a new opportunity and new eyes on you, and he was able to take off and run with it. There’s pressure on all of us, but that’s part of pro sports. I don’t think we have to be hard on guys where they expect and demand a completely different Dylan Holloway. I think if he sticks to what he does and how he approaches his day to day and doesn’t worry about the results, worries about the day to day, he’s going to be totally fine.” Holloway skated in a career-high 16:49 per game, getting top assignments the more the season went and earning the trust from the coaching staff. And for him to become one of those top-end league players, will come more opportunity. “Potentially penalty killing for us, eat more minutes,” Montgomery said. “He has an iron lung. It doesn’t seem like he gets tired. He just keeps skating. He’s the Energizer Bunny out there. I guess for him, it’s developing his 200-foot game and continuing to evolve as a dynamic offensive player.” Holloway has turned into an absolute bargain for the Blues when he signed a two-year, $4.58 million ($2.29 million average annual value) contract that has one year left on it, then can become a restricted free agent next summer. The Blues know what they have, so don’t fret, he isn’t going anywhere. “He and I talked last couple of days,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “He's in a great place physically. Mentally he's even in a better place. When I talked to he and Broberg about the whirlwind things they did last year, end of July they're Edmonton Oilers and then for a week they're NHL property and then they're St. Louis Blues. Then coming here and have to deal with the expectations: St. Louis overpaid, the other team should've kept them. There was all that debris that they had to deal with and for them to play as well as they did last year ... Holloway took it to a level of his draft position. He was a top pick and he played like a top pick, as Broberg did. If we're going to be a good team, Holloway has to replicate that, or very close to replicating that. Not just point wise. He's probably the hardest-working player we have in our organization right now. You come in here on a Sunday morning and you think you have the place to yourself and then you hear pucks clanking and he's in the shooting room. He's a hockey player, he loves it, he works extremely hard. His conditioning is off the charts. Better person than player, too. He's the full package of what you would want in an organization and we learned that after we got him. You don't know those things until you get them in the room. But he's a core piece of what we've got going and he wants to be a core piece, too.” As for that next contract, Holloway said, “Honestly right now, I’m not too worried about it. I’m just focused on playing hockey. That’s one thing I’ll let Army and my agent kind of take care of. That’s why you’ve got an agent, they take care of that stuff and you just play hockey. That’s what I’m worried about. “… I feel good. I was fortunate enough that the injury healed faster than I anticipated. I was able to get a good summer in and skating 100 percent and working out 100 percent. Trying to get better and not thinking about the oblique. I feel pretty good right now and just hope to keep it going.” Blues' Jake Neighbours Set To Miss First Three Days Of Training Camp [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/dc6972ad-e322-49ce-a300-289817f7e0d4.jpeg] Blues' Jake Neighbours Set To Miss First Three Days Of Training Camp St. Louis Blues winger Jake Neighbours will miss the first three days of training camp to attend to a personal family matter. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/blues-jake-neighbours-set-to-miss-first-three-days-of-training-camp] 'It's His Job to Lose,' Blues GM Doug Armstrong With A Straightforward Message To Logan Mailloux [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/837c746a-8ea8-4da9-9b26-681a60425bcc.jpeg] 'It's His Job to Lose,' Blues GM Doug Armstrong With A Straightforward Message To Logan Mailloux The St. Louis Blues' training camp has finally started, but prior to the first practices, GM Doug Armstrong spoke to the media, talking about several topics. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/players/it-s-his-job-to-lose-blues-gm-doug-armstrong-with-a-straightforward-message-to-logan-mailloux] Armstrong Not Going Down Memory Lane In Final Year As GM Of St. Louis Blues [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/23f632cd-ab17-48d4-b0d5-1636fa432644.jpeg] Armstrong Not Going Down Memory Lane In Final Year As GM Of St. Louis Blues MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Doug Armstrong’s not looking for gifts; he’s not looking for accolades. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/players/armstrong-not-going-down-memory-lane-in-final-year-as-gm-of-st-louis-blues]
