Mac Hollowell excels in his role as an AHL defenseman

With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason for a third consecutive year without a playoff appearance, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 56 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with Noel Acciari and going on through to Philip Tomasino (regrettably, there is no Z on the payroll), every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published Mondays through Saturdays leading up until June 24, four days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

Mac Hollowell

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Right

Age: 26

Height: 5-foot-9

Weight: 170 pounds

2024-25 AHL statistics: 56 games, 31 points (one goal, 30 assists)

Contract: Signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000. Pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason

Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 1, 2024

This season: Seemingly, no matter who has been in charge of doling out contracts for the Pittsburgh Penguins, there has always been an emphasis on finding a sturdy veteran defenseman for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins over the past 25 years.

Be it previous general managers such as Craig Patrick, Ray Shero, Jim Rutherford or Ron Hextall, they always managed to find one.

John Slaney, Patrick Boileau, Alain Nasreddine, Micki DuPont, Andrew Hutchinson, Corey Potter, Alexandre Picard, Dylan Reese, Taylor Chorney, Will O’Neill, David Warsofsky, Cameron Gaunce, Kevin Czuczman, Zach Trotman, Chris Summer, Stefan Elliott, Taylor Fedun, Matt Bartkowski and Xavier Ouellet are all part of that fraternity.

And if you just happened to have previously played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League or the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, there’s a good chance current Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas - who has ties to each team - will call your agent.

Such was the case with Mac Hollowell.

The Penguins inked Hollowell on the first day of the free agency signing period with the hopes he would be the latest veteran defenseman to carry things on the blue line for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and he was something of a priority in that capacity as evidenced by his ample $250,000 salary at the AHL level.

An AHL All-Star in 2023-24 with the Hartford Wolf Pack, Hollowell opened 2024-25 as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top defenseman.

A slick puck distributor, Hollowell generated the bulk of his offensive production in the form of assists. In his first 17 games of the season, he racked up 13 points (all assists), with a number of them coming on the power play.

After being excused from the team to suit up for Canada in the Spengler Cup international tournament staged in late December, Hollowell’s lone goal of the season came during a 5-4 road loss to the rival Hershey Bears on Feb. 11.

Injuries began to become a far-too-common nuisance for Hollowell in late March when he missed three consecutive games due to an undisclosed ailment between March 23-29. Then, after two games back in the lineup, his season wound up coming to an end in early April. Another unspecified malady cost Hollowell the final nine games of the season, including Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s only two playoff contests.

The future: While he may be something of a favorite of Dubas, Hollowell — who led all Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defensemen in scoring — never seemed like a threat to earn a recall this past season, even as injuries and trades depleted the Pittsburgh Penguins’ blue line.

A pending unrestricted free agent, Hollowell could very well move on to somewhere else for another two-way contract but with a better chance to reach the NHL.

At the same time, he clearly has some value to Penguins management and can continue to be something of a mentor for the franchise’s legitimate prospects.

Hollowell is a wonderful AHL defenseman. And that might be his ceiling as he approaches his 27th birthday on Sept. 26. That’s his role and he excels at it.