Dylan Holloway is already doing the kind of heavy lifting the Blues need from him early in 2026-27.
St. Louis has stumbled out of the gate, but Holloway has brought a physical edge to the top of the lineup while helping drag the offense out of its slump. Through the first five games, the 25-year-old has piled up 12 hits, and the schedule now sends the Blues to Ottawa tomorrow night to open a three-game road trip that also includes stops in Minnesota and Nashville before the team returns home to Enterprise Center on October 20 for a third straight Central Division matchup against Winnipeg.
The production hasn’t shown up in goals yet, but Holloway has still been right in the middle of things. He set up three of St.
Louis’ five goals in the win over Columbus, a game that ended a three-game skid for the Blues and gave Holloway a three-point night without him finding the net himself. He’s skating alongside Robert Thomas and Jimmy Snuggerud on the club’s top offensive line, and that trio has given St.
Louis a real spark even with the team sitting at 2-2-1.
That line has been especially efficient to start the year, posting a 63.2% goal-scoring percentage. The Blues as a whole are 22nd in the league in goals per game at about three a night, but that number was even lower before the five-goal outburst against Columbus. The expectation is that the offense will climb as the season settles in, and Holloway’s line is a big reason why.
Holloway has also been creating enough chances to suggest the first goal is coming soon. He’s already fired nine shots on goal in five games, which shows he’s testing goaltenders early and often. Even without a goal yet, the early signs point the same way: the physical play is there, the shot volume is there, and the results should follow.
That would be a welcome development for a player who is trying to build on back-to-back 20-plus-goal seasons with St. Louis.
Since arriving from Edmonton after the 2023-24 season, Holloway has played 141 games for the Blues and produced 48 goals and 69 assists for 117 points. In his first two NHL seasons with the Oilers, he appeared in 89 games and totaled just nine goals and nine assists for 18 points.
His plus-minus has swung with the change of scenery too, sitting at plus-30 with St. Louis after finishing at minus-1 in Edmonton.
There’s also the long-term commitment to consider. Holloway signed a five-year, $38.75 million contract this summer, keeping him in St.
Louis through at least the 2030-31 season. He still needs his first goal of the year, but if the shots, hits and playmaking keep coming, that milestone should be close.
Two more goals would give him 50 as a Blue, and that would be another fitting marker for a player who looks set to remain part of the team’s core for a while.
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Jim Montgomery has options to consider, and the conversation around the blue line is getting louder. One possibility is shifting the puck-moving burden away from Adam Jiricek and Cam Fowler and toward Colton Parayko and Philip Broberg, a tweak aimed at giving the Blues a sturdier setup and more pressure once they get into the offensive zone, which could be the kind of adjustment that steadies the group before the numbers become a bigger problem. [Read more 🡒]
Cam Fowlers Quiet Start Is Hiding A Bigger Blues Story
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The lack of offense has more to do with shooting luck than any real drop-off in impact. Fowler has been effective defensively and on the penalty kill, helping St. Louis survive tough minutes while waiting for the puck to bounce a little differently. If that finishing touch comes around, the Blues may find that the real story is not a cold start at all, but a reliable defenseman doing a lot of important work before the points catch up. [Read more 🡒]
Cam Fowler Has A Bigger Blues Role Than Ever Before
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Through the first five games, Fowler has been asked to shoulder more responsibility again, including work on the second power-play unit. It is a notable turn for a player who had been on the margins of a reduced role not long ago, and it leaves the Blues balancing what Fowler has done before with what they need from him now. The early returns have not shown up on the scoresheet, but the workload says plenty about how the staff views him. [Read more 🡒]