When a 20-year-old Dylan Hollman began his college hockey career with the University of Massachusetts Lowell, it probably seemed unimaginable that he’d be the captain of a team in the middle of a desert two seasons later.
After what he called an “unlucky” turn in his first college season, Hollman finds himself wearing the "C" on his jersey in Tempe, Arizona.
In a practice prior to his first season at UMass Lowell, Hollman suffered an injury that he later aggravated in an exhibition game. He was out for half the year and found that he didn’t have a spot in the lineup when he came back.
“I didn’t get a lot of playing time that year, and they finished the year pretty strong,” Hollman said. “They had a good team with a lot of guys coming back. So I just thought it’d probably be better for my development to go elsewhere.”
He ended his career at UMass Lowell with just one game played.
“Elsewhere” eventually became ASU, a program that was soon to embark on its first Division I NCAA season. But because of NCAA regulations, Hollman’s transfer to ASU meant he’d have to sit out yet another season – a redshirt year.
“It was tough,” he said. “It was just a tough year for our team and not being able to be in the lineup and help them out was the hardest part, I think.”
In that redshirt year, Hollman practiced and trained with the Sun Devils. It was then that head coach Greg Powers noticed that Hollman was “probably the best player in practice every day.” He was named the team captain prior to this season.
“The approach I try to take is to be friends with each of the guys,” Hollman said. “I don’t bark at them too much with negative, I just try for the most part to keep it all positive and keep them all in line. But they’ve done an excellent job so far this year, making my job really easy.”
On Oct. 16, in the Sun Devils' first NCAA win over a ranked opponent, Hollman's hard work paid off when he scored the first goal of his college career.
.@SunDevilHockey GETS ON THE BOARD!#NCAAHockey is LIVE: https://t.co/ZLABafSnBVhttps://t.co/rFJdAqfTEJ
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) October 16, 2016
Although the redshirt sophomore has spent more of his college hockey career off the ice than on it, Hollman isn’t a stranger to game action at a high level. In his home province of Alberta, he played for the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.
With the Saints, he became close friends with his teammate, Tyler Busch. The two separated as Hollman went to UMass Lowell, Busch committed to Ohio State.
But before Busch made it to Ohio State, changes in that program swayed him to retract his commitment. Hollman swooped in and persuaded Busch to come to the Sun Devils.
“He was on the phone with me talking about the program,” Busch said. “I had a lot of questions, it’s a new program and everything, and he was really good with answering those questions, and he spoke really highly of what they’re doing down here.”
Now reunited with Hollman, Busch said his old friend is a good leader who “says the right things.”
It so happens that Hollman’s help in recruiting Busch is paying dividends; through the Sun Devils’ first six games, Busch has four goals. So when Hollman sat for almost the entirety of two seasons, recruited a top-line forward, remained focused in a redshirt season and earned the praises of his teammates and coaches, it’s obvious why his sweater has that "C" on it.
“He’s done a tremendous job,” Powers said. “He’s been great on and off the ice. That’s why we chose him to be our captain.”
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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