Minnesota Wild: 2018-19 Season Preview of Jordan Greenway

Minnesota Wild forward prospect Jordan Greenway has had a fantastic 2018 so far, and looks for it to continue into the fall. Let’s have a look at #18 on our countdown to the preseason.

Jordan Greenway started 2018 with the ride of his life, and is well on his way to becoming a permanent fixture on the Minnesota Wild. The 2015 2nd Round Draft pick played in 11 NHL games, and quickly made an impression on the State of Hockey. Where can he go from here?

History

I’m going to skip over a bunch, and get right to the nitty-gritty for Jordan. 2018 was a year of firsts for the 21 year old Minnesota Wild prospect, and oh boy did he have a bunch of them.

We’ll start with perhaps the biggest accomplishment of all, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Not only was Greenway selected to the Olympics as a college player (a possibility only because NHL players were forbidden to participate), Greenway became the first ever African-American Hockey player selected to the US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team (per espn.com)

At the completion of the Olympics Greenway returned to Boston University to complete the remainder of his junior season. He rejoined the team just in time for the Hockey East Tournament, where he led the team to the championship and was named to the All-Tournament Team.

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Unfortunately that success wasn’t able to translate through the NCAA Tournament, as Boston University was elimated short of reaching the Frozen Four. This would turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Greenway, as he turned the negative to a positive extremely fast.

Less than 24 hours after being eliminated from the NCAA tournament, Jordan Greenway signed his entry-level NHL Contract with the Minnesota Wild. The very next day, he was in the lineup for his first NHL game against the Nashville Predators. He played 10 scoreless minutes in that game, and finished the season with 5 more games in Minnesota, recording an assist in the season finale.

His gritty, physical style of play impressed the coaches enough to earn him a consistent spot through all 5 playoff games. Greenway proved the trust in his coaches right by providing his first NHL goal and another assist in the playoffs, earning heavy praise from his coaches.

"“Jordan Greenway got better every game he played; by the end of the playoffs, he was maybe our best player up front.” -coach Bruce Boudreau, on who he is excited about going into 2018-19"

Among all of these accomplishments for 2018, there is one more that Greenway accomplished. Boston University were the first to tweet that Jordan Greenway became the first player in the history of hockey to play in the Olympics, the NCAA tournament, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs all in the same year.

Season Preview

With all of those accomplishments now behind him, it almost makes you wonder what’s left for him to accomplish this season. A Calder Trophy and Stanley Cup with the Minnesota Wild would be some nice additions to his trophy collection.

Expect for Greenway to be on the opening night roster, given how he finished last season I feel like his spot should be already secured barring a major setback in camp or preseason. The real question may be who lines up around him.

Greenway finished last season on the 3rd line alongside Matt Cullen and Charlie Coyle. I think it’s safe to assume Jordan stays on that line with Charlie to start the year, but obviously Cullen left in free agency which begs the question of who should center that line.

Eric Fehr may be the most logical choice. Given the playoff success of the line with Cullen and Coyle last season, a pairing with a veteran center similar to Cullen could give Greenway a comfortable presence to adapt in his first full season. This could be a temporary option, but I still feel like there’s a better choice to be had.

Joel Eriksson Ek seems like the obvious first choice to get his shot at it, as he is most familiar with the Minnesota Wild system. It’s an interesting preposition, but I think we’ll find quickly that it doesn’t fit. Ek has historically been a scoring center in Sweden, but his scoring has failed to materialize in the NHL. Pairing him between 2 power forwards seems like a poor choice.

Kyle Rau is an extreme long shot at this point, though we may see Rau and Greenway get some time together in preseason to test chemistry.  Where Rau could be intriguing is his track record of being able to produce points at every level. If the chemistry is there, this could be a surprisingly good fit.

The true fit, and the player that I think deserves most to excel between Greenway and Coyle though, is Luke Kunin. As I mentioned in yesterday’s Kunin preview, I think Kunin starts the year in Iowa, but when he is ready to rejoin the Minnesota Wild I would love to see Kunin centering this pair of offensive weapons.

Greenway is well on his way to a productive NHL career, and from what we have seen so far I see no reason to doubt his ability to produce. He gives me the sense of a Cal Clutterbuck type, who can finish his checks and bring the body all night but also produce on the scoreboard at a consistent pace.

I’m willing to go ahead and project 70+ games in the lineup, and around 20-30 points for the big man from Shattuck-St.Mary’s. This should be the first of many seasons we see number 18 in a Minnesota Wild jersey.