 When his schoolboy days were over, he played a year of junior hockey with the St. Paul Vulcans of the Midwest Junior Hockey League in 1973-74 and was then selected to be part of the US junior national team to compete in the 1974 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Leningrad.Holmgren was selected by the Edmonton Oilers 67th overall in the 1974 WHA Amateur Draft.He never played for Edmonton as his WHA rights were traded to the Minnesota Fighting Saints.