Yesterday, the Devils announced that they signed 2020 first round pick Alexander Holtz to an Entry Level Deal that kicks in during eth 2021-22 season. In the meantime, Holtz signed an Amateur Try-Out with the AHL Binghamton Devils for the rest of this season.
The Entry Level deal is a standard three-year contract and with the ATO, Holtz will spend the rest of this year getting used to the North American ice surface with Binghamton. This will follow a quarantine period as he travels from his native Sweden.
Holtz stands 6-feet tall and weighs in at 195-pounds. He had been playing for Djurgardens of the Swedish Hockey League, notching seven goals and 11 assists (18 points) and four penalty minutes over 40 games in the regular season. In three SHL playoff games, Holtz had two goals and two assists (four points). According to the Devils PR press release, this tied for the scoring lead over the playoffs for Djurgardens,
As a 17-year-old, he was tenth in scoring on Djurgardens with 16 points, nine goals and seven assists. He led all players younger than 18 in scoring in the SHL that season, his Draft year. The presser notes that the nine goals he scored was “tied for third-most by an under-18 player in SHL history.” It said that over 30 years, only Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund “scored more in their U-18 years” in the SHL.
Internationally, the Saltsjo-Boo, Sweden-native played for the Swedes at the 2021 World Junior Championship netting a goal and two assists (three points) over five games. He was also on the 2020 Swedish team at the World Championship that won bronze. He also won gold with the 2019 Swedish under-18 team that the Under-18 World Junior Championship.
In other news being reported by Sam Kasan of the Devils, “the Devils held an optional practice Monday afternoon before boarding a flight to Pittsburgh for a three-game road series against the Penguins.” He noted that Pavel Zacha, who has an undisclosed injury and Jesper Bratt, lower body injury, will travel with the team to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Kasan quoted Lindy Ruff as saying “Right now we plan on bringing both players along.” He also said that Zacha did skate Monday and that “Bratt ‘tried’ to skate.” Ruff had previously thought that both would be ready to come back “in the next ‘game or two’.” That was on Sunday.
Ruff continued: “I believe Bratt tried it today and Pavel skated a little bit too. It might take a couple of days to get them up to speed being out a period of time. But they are going to travel.”
Kasan noted that Zacha has missed four games and Bratt three. They are the Devils’ leading scorers in points with both notching 25.