Nick Holden, the oldest Ottawa Senator, is a steady defenceman who brings experience to the young team. He's also a child at heart and a community leader who donates his sponsor-supplied equipment to children in need. ✍: HockeyScanner
was getting ready to hit his golf ball on the second hole of the Mark Spector Golf Classic in Edmonton when he heard his cell go off.
“It seems like I don’t really like to set roots down anywhere,” said Holden, perhaps with a touch of gallows humour. Thewere about to become his sixth NHL team. “I get a little bit bored and have to move every three years or so.” “We were fortunate to have our kids early on and now they’re getting old enough, and I’m still able to play, where they’re going to be able to remember some of this stuff, remember coming into the room.”Modern hockey parents -- NHL players included -- tend to have a couple of children, three at the most. Most of the young Senators are single and carefree, and years away from being fathers. But when Holden was in Las Vegas from 2018-21, the kids ran wild in the bowels of T-Mobile Arena.
Hardly. As so often happens in hockey, circumstances change, injuries happen. Doors open. As the Vegas Knights played three playoff rounds, Holden found himself holdin’ on to a significant role as a solid defender in the gritty playoff milieu. He played close to 16 minutes per game, chipped in seven points and was plus 2.
It’s a fair point. After last season’s North Division experience, the Senators have a lot of young professionals who have rarely faced a premier team like the Capitals before, and for some it was their first time playing against Ovechkin and company.A broader look at Ottawa’s defence after six games shows the seven spot put up by Washington to be an anomaly. Toss out that game and the Senators have given up 2.4 goals per game in their first five outings.
On the upcoming road trip to Dallas, Chicago and Minnesota, the pairings will get remixed, no doubt, with veteran Michael Del Zotto also getting worked in. There is also little doubt that after Chabot and Zub, Holden is Ottawa’s No. 3 defenceman. He is here to hold the fort until the next wave comes in -- prospects like Jake Sanderson, Tyler Kleven, Lassi Thomson and Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Approaching his mid-thirties, Holden is the oldest player on a team of kids, but as he told Smith at the time he was acquired: “I’m young at heart.” According to sources, friends kid Holden’s wife, Angela, about the demands of raising “five” children, Nick being the fifth. But even after a fine junior career as a big , steady defenceman with decent numbers , a life in the pros was hardly certain. At the time of his draft year, 2005, he was an unheralded player on a Sherwood Park provincial team and was not selected.
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