We report the design and performance of medium slope efficiency (64%) Holmium-doped fiber amplifiers (HDFAs) with novel alternative in-band pump wavelengths in the 1720–2000 nm spectral region. We demonstrate through simulations that pump wavelengths of 1840–1860 nm can yield significantly improved output power, gain, and optical-optical conversion efficiency compared to the previous technical and industry standard pump wavelength of 1940 nm. Our simulations are verified by experimental data.