Friday Four: Will Blues' home run with Holloway spark more offer sheets?

The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week:

• Holloway bet paying off for Blues

• Can Makar get to 30 goals?

• Caps in great shape with Protas brothers

• Allen making a case to be Devils playoff starter

Dylan Holloway, St. Louis Blues

After missing the playoffs for two straight seasons, the St. Louis Blues needed a change last summer. Many of the key contributors from their Stanley Cup-winning team had moved on and the roster was stagnant. The Blues were stuck in the mushy middle, not good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a high draft pick. That’s the last place you want to be in the NHL.

St. Louis faced two choices. Either tear it down completely and rebuild, or add and make a push for the playoffs. It initially looked like the Blues were going with the former, following a quiet free agency where they didn’t make any kind of a major splash. But GM Doug Armstrong was planning to go down a different path and struck with a pair of carefully planned offers sheets in the middle of August for Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. The Edmonton Oilers chose not to match and the Blues suddenly added a good young player to both their defence corps and forward group, immediately giving their roster more balance.

The new additions didn’t pay immediate dividends in the win column, though. St. Louis fired head coach Drew Bannister after a slow start to the season and replaced him with Jim Montgomery, and Broberg missed most of November with an injury. However, Holloway has been a constant for the Blues all season and exactly the type of player they were looking for to bring them back to relevance. 

Holloway is on pace for 29 goals and 69 points after struggling to get minutes in a crowded Oilers lineup. He never played more than 51 games in a season and never averaged more than 11 minutes or so a night in Edmonton, but he’s flourished with more opportunities. The 23-year-old has found a home in the Blues top six and his versatility has been a huge asset, as in addition to his offensive numbers, Holloway has also thrown 157 hits to bring an element of physicality to the lineup. 

Where Holloway has really helped the Blues is down the stretch, as St. Louis has surged up the standings and all of a sudden has an excellent chance to land a playoff spot. Holloway is on a nine-game point streak and has tallied 15 points over that stretch, as the Blues have won their past eight games. With Jordan Binnington coming off a big-game performance at the 4 Nations and Colton Parayko soon to rejoin the lineup, St. Louis not only looks like it could make the post-season but make some noise when it gets there, too. 

Given how swimmingly this has worked out for Holloway and the Blues, will we see more offer sheets this summer? They are typically very rare, but with the cap going up, teams could be more inclined to go this route if they don’t get what they want in free agency. The key with the Holloway and Broberg offer sheets was that they were very targeted toward a team that was not only in a tight cap situation but trying to win right away. The Oilers had already signed Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson on July 1, and to retain Holloway and Broberg at the price St. Louis set, it would’ve required Edmonton to move off veteran players and perform some major cap gymnastics. Also, what the Blues had to give up when the Oilers didn’t match, a second- and third-round pick, wasn’t astronomical.

There are definitely some talented young players that could be perfect for offer sheets in the off-season. Matthew Knies, Marco Rossi, Mavrik Bourque and Mackie Samoskevich all be could facing challenging contract situations based on the ability they’ve shown and their teams' cap situation. It’s unlikely we’ll see a handful of offer sheets this summer, but with the success St. Louis had and all the promising young talent available, it seems reasonable that some organizations would be more willing to take a chance than in years past. 

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but now that we’ve seen the fallout of the Holloway and Broberg offer sheets for close to a full season, it would be hard to argue Edmonton made the right choice. Skinner and Arvidsson haven’t been a great fit and giving more responsibility to Holloway and Broberg would’ve set them up better now and in the future. Their loss is the Blues' gain. 

Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche

With the hockey world eagerly anticipating when Alexander Ovechkin will break Wayne Gretzky’s goals record, there’s another impressive scoring milestone being pursued by Cale Makar. 

Makar scored his 27th goal of the season on Tuesday, putting him three away from the elusive mark of 30 in a season for a defender. The feat has been accomplished only 17 times in NHL history by eight players, with the last 30-goal season from a blue-liner coming from Mike Green all the way back in 2008-09. Before that, it hadn’t been done since 1992-93. It’s extremely rare. 

The Avalanche defenceman is a rare talent, though, and if anyone can get to 30, it’s Makar. He had 21 a season ago and, in 2021-22 when Colorado won the Cup, he came very close with 28 goals in 77 games that year. Makar has been knocking on the door of a 30-goal season for quite some time and picking up three goals in his final nine games seems very doable. Nathan MacKinnon is having another Hart Trophy-caliber season and the Avs have a top-10 power play and rank sixth in the NHL in goal scoring. Plus, you know his teammates are going to try to set him up every chance they get in order to get him to 30.

We’ve been fortunate to watch some elite defencemen have impressive seasons in 2024-25. Quinn Hughes may singlehandedly drag the Vancouver Canucks to the playoffs, and despite a recent cold stretch, Zach Werenski has had an impressive campaign of his own, already pocketing 20 goals. It takes a really special talent and set of circumstances for a defenceman to score 30, though, and the stars are aligning for Makar to add his name to a very exclusive list. 

If Makar does pull this off, it’s only going to further cement his legacy as one of the great talents to ever play the game. Makar already has a Cup, Calder, Norris and Conn Smythe Trophy to his credit and you could argue he’s already putting the finishing touches on a Hall of Fame resume at only 26 years of age. 

Aliaksei Protas, Washington Capitals

How in the world did Aliaksei Protas last until the third round?

That’s what 31 other teams are asking themselves, or better yet, Why didn’t we take him? The Washington Capitals made the investment and Protas has been a key contributor for them this season and one of the biggest reasons the team is fighting for a Presidents’ Trophy. 

The 24-year-old has been an incredible find for the Caps. After scoring just 13 times combined over his first three seasons, Protas has exploded this year for 29 goals and 64 points. He also recently had a five-game point streak and has a trio of three-point games in the past five weeks alone. Protas has been a mainstay on Washington’s top line all season with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome, and hasn’t looked out of place. At six-foot-six, Protas is a handful to deal with for opposing defences and his height causes matchup problems all over the ice. 

What’s amazing is the Caps actually have two Protas’. His brother Ilya, also a third-round pick in last year’s draft, has starred this season for the Windsor Spitfires. He has an incredible 50 goals and 124 points in just 61 games and, much like his brother, he has the size of a six-foot-five frame that’s also going to eventually give NHL opposition nightmares.

This was supposed to a down year for the Caps and they were clearly heading in the wrong direction last season, but things have changed quickly. Washington retooled on the fly and the Caps have been getting contributions from up and down their lineup. Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy have fit in seamlessly on the blue line and goaltenders Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren have been a great tandem. The Caps' gamble on Pierre-Luc Dubois also worked out and he looks like a different player in Washington. Add in Connor McMichael having a breakout season, Ryan Leonard, who is set to soon join the team, and the Protas brothers, and this Caps squad doesn’t seem like an anomaly. They should have staying power and be a force for the foreseeable future. 

Jake Allen, New Jersey Devils

There may be a goalie controversy brewing in New Jersey.

The numbers would say so, as Jake Allen has vastly outplayed Jacob Markstrom of late. The Devils paid a big price to acquire Markstrom last summer to fix their goaltending issues, but he’s barely maintaining a .900 save percentage and is really struggling down the stretch. Markstrom has just one quality start this month and an .847 save percentage in his past eight games, with only two victories over that stretch.

That’s opened the door for Allen to receive more playing time, and he’s taken advantage of it. The veteran is 3-1-0 in March with a sparkling .943 save percentage and he’s now up to almost 21 goals saved above expected for the season. That’s good enough to put Allen at fifth overall in the NHL in that category. 

Saves have also become far more paramount for the Devils, who have been decimated by injuries to key players. Jack Hughes is done for the year and Dougie Hamilton won’t be back anytime soon, making goals much harder to come by and, in turn, forcing New Jersey to become more stingy if it wants to win games. The Devils have scored more than three goals just twice in 13 games and while they’re still likely to qualify for the post-season, things have gotten a lot more uncomfortable. 

That brings up the question of who should start Game 1 of the playoffs for the Devils in what would be a likely matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes. Coach Sheldon Keefe has a tough choice on his hands, as Markstrom has the bigger contract and track record, but Allen might be their best chance to win. New Jersey is likely going to need its goalie to steal a game or two in the series given its lack of offensive firepower and, at the moment, it appears Allen has the best chance at doing that. Allen has also performed very well in the post-season, sporting a .924 save percentage in 29 career playoff games. The moment and pressure won’t be too big for him. 

With all that said, there is still time for Markstrom to change the narrative heading into the playoffs. The Devils have a tough three-game stretch coming up, with Winnipeg on Friday night and then back-to-back contests against the Minnesota Wild. If Markstrom can put together a pair of impressive starts and help New Jersey firm up its grip on a post-season spot, it should give Keefe more confidence that Markstrom can be trusted going forward. 

When the Devils let a game slip away on Monday against the Vancouver Canucks in the shootout, Markstrom was visibly frustrated on the winning goal, smashing his stick against the post. You got the sense that part of that was because of the loss and another part of the anger was Markstrom realizing his grip on the starting job is tenuous at best.