Mac Hollowell was certainly a little disappointed to be starting his first pro season in the ECHL, but his ticket to St. John’s and the Newfoundland Growlers has turned out to be little more than a brief detour in his quest to play in Toronto.
Hollowell, the 21-year-old rookie defenceman by way of Niagara Falls, Ont., got his third recall to the American Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies when he was summoned Friday. The Marlies are due to play a back-to-back weekend series in Laval, Que. against the Rocket.
Hollowell got his first taste of the pro game last season with the Marlies, just after closing out his fifth junior campaign with the Ontario league’s Soo Greyhounds.
He appeared on nine Calder Cup playoff games with the Marlies, collecting an assist, his first pro point.
So naturally, it goes without saying Hollowell was aiming to play in the American league as a rookie this season.
But the parent Maple Leafs had some good news, and some bad news for the fleet-footed red-head. He was going to Newfoundland, the reigning ECHL champions, where the organization had big plans for Hollowell.
“Obviously,” he said after practice recently, “you want to play at the highest level, and if that’s not the NHL, then it’s the AHL. So it stung a bit.”
So now the good news.
“But I’m definitely not too mad about it. I’m playing big minutes, and doing things I might not be able to do in the American league,” said Hollowell, who has three goals and 10 assists through 19 ECHL games this season.
Big minutes, indeed. Under Growlers head coach John Snowden, Hollowell has been among the top minute-munchers on the youthful Newfoundland squad.
“Big minutes,” Hollowell said again. “I’m out there at the end of the game, whether we’re down by a goal or up by a goal. I’m on the power play, the PK.
“I don’t think I’d be seeing that with the Marlies this season, so it’s good to come here and get that and get some experience against pro guys. There are good players down here.”
Snowden marvels at Hollowell’s skating ability – “it’s very, very good … smooth and simple. He’s going fast and you don’t even know it because he’s so effortless when he skates.” – which was no doubt one of the reasons the Leafs made him their fourth-round pick, 118th overall, in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. That, and the fact Leafs GM Kyle Dubas was familiar with Hollowell.
Dubas was running the Greyhounds when Hollowell broke into major junior hockey, and was the Soo’s GM when he selected Hollowell in the 12th round of the 2014 OHL draft.
So what gives? Why did Hollowell, with so much upside, last so long … first in the junior draft and later in the NHL lottery?
Probably because he stands 5-10 and weighs 175 pounds.
Hockey is opening itself up to smaller players, but smaller defencemen still have a ways to go to prove themselves.
“You know what,” asked Snowden, “everybody’s got parts of their game that they need to work on and grow and get better.
“Mac is an outstanding skater, a very good hockey player, and he’s learning to play the game at the pro level as a smaller defenceman, leaning to use his body effectively. And I think we, as an organization, have set up a structure from top to bottom that we’re giving these players an opportunity to play important minutes, and also play in situations that they might not see if they were in the American league. They’d be getting seven minutes of low-risk icetime, whereas here they’re seeing 22 minutes of quality ice.”
It wasn’t that long ago a 5-10 defenceman would have a black line drawn through his name by NHL scouts. That’s changing, like many other aspects of the pro game, with veterans like Ryan Ellis, and youngsters Cale Makar and Victor Mete making their mark.
“I like watching Jared Spurgeon (the 5-9 D-man with the Minnesota Wild),” Hollowell said. “When you see guys like that have success, even though they’re not the biggest, it makes me work harder every day.”
And just maybe help inspire him to reserve a permanent address in Toronto some day.
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor. He can be reached by email [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
