Dylan Holloway was back on the ice for the first day of training camp on Thursday — and despite a difficult injury that kept him off the ice late last season and throughout the playoffs, he looked as if he didn’t miss a beat.
“It was a pleasant, pleasant day to see him back out there,” Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery said. “Whew, he looked like he didn’t even miss [any time]. It was good. His second and third effort, I think, it is contagious and he was really good today.”
Holloway was skating with Brayden Schenn and 2025 first-round pick Justin Carbonneau in Thursday’s practice session. He told reporters after practice that he suffered an oblique injury in a “fluke” moment that happened April 3 vs. Pittsburgh.
“They said they haven’t seen anything like that before,” Holloway said of the injury. “It was an extensive abdomen surgery, but the surgeon did a great job, the recovery went good… I feel good. I was fortunate enough that the injury actually healed faster than I anticipated. I was able to get a good summer in of skating 100 percent, working out 100 percent and kind of trying to get better and not really think about the oblique. I feel pretty good right now, and hopefully I can keep it going.”
As the Blues climbed back into the playoff picture last season, Holloway was a big part of that success. In his first year as a Blue, the Calgary native recorded 26 goals and 37 assists (63 points) and a plus-21, setting career highs in all categories.
“He was a top pick, and he played like a top pick,” Blues GM Doug Armstrong said of Holloway’s first season in St. Louis. “If we’re going to be a good team (this season), Holloway has to replicate that or very close to replicate that, not just points-wise. He’s probably the hardest-working player we have in our organization right now. You come here on a Sunday morning, you think you have the place to yourself and you hear pucks clanging around. He’s in the shooting room. He’s a hockey player, he loves it. He works extremely hard, his conditioning is off the charts... He’s a core piece of what we have going, and he wants to be a core piece, too.”
