Mac Hollowell being added to the #LeafsForever roster seems insignificant, but it reminded me how much Dubas and Keefe believe in him.

In 2014, Hollowell was one of the last OHL draft picks Dubas made for SSM. In 2017 he goes undrafted in his first year eligible

Dubas has full control of the draft for the first time in 2018, he takes Hollowell in the 4th round, higher than he was ranked.

Hollowell was not eligible for an ELC slide due to his birthday, he couldn't sign a contract for 2019-20 until March 1, 2019.

He signed March 7, 2019.

Hollowell joined the Marlies for the 2019 playoffs at the same time as 21 year old Duszak, but won the open spot and played 5 more AHL playoff games.

He started 19-20 in the ECHL with the Growlers, but put up 13 points in 19 games and quickly earned a shot at the Marlies.

Now, with a limit on the number of players a team can carry, Hollowell was the first guy Dubas called when someone was unfit to play.

One more indicator that Dubas believes in Hollowell is his cap hit. I've brought it up before but it has to do with emergency recalls.

If a team has no cap space and needs to recall a player, they can use an emergency recall on a player with a cap hit under $800k.

Hollowell's is $799,766, and that's no accident. Hollowell's salary is $5000 more than league minimum, he's the only player with that cap hit.

Essentially he got paid as much as possible while staying under the $800k threshold and not using GP bonuses.

I wrote about how this all works here:

https://theleafsnation.com/2020/07/16/cba-update-entry-level-contracts/

but the takeaway for me is that Dubas thinks Hollowell could be in the NHL by 2022.