A.J. Greer crashes, bangs, and booms his way through NHL debut

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The Colorado Avalanche farm system has long been a sore subject and the realistic possibility of calling up a legitimate young prospect to fill an injury need is something the Avs have not been able to reliably do for many years.

This year, things are quite a bit different as the Colorado Avalanche lost star forward Matt Duchene to a head injury, suffered Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets, they turned to their farm team, the San Antonio Rampage, and ready to step into the lineup was 19-year old A.J. Greer.

Greer was a second round draft pick by the Avalanche in th 2015 Draft and was widely viewed as a significant reach by the team as he was regarded around the league as more of a mid-round prospect. Following a tumultuous path to pro hockey, Greer has been nothing short of spectacular for the Rampage en route to registering 14 points in 13 games, making him the obvious call-up choice when the Avs were looking to replace Duchene.

Tonight, Greer touched NHL ice in a regular season game significantly ahead of the plan many expected him to follow after being drafted. Much of the credit he attributed to his parents, who made the trek out to Colorado to see him play his first game.

“It’s unbelievable,” Greer said of having his parents in attendance. “My parents have done everything for me and it’s kind of a reward towards them and I owe a lot of credit to them during my career and hopefully this won’t be the last time they come to Colorado. I think it’s a great opportunity to have them down here and see my first NHL game. It’s very special.”

There was much talk of the fiery Greer’s NHL debut before, during, and after the game as his meteoric rise from a prospect not much was expected from to playing in the NHL as a teenager became a journey completed Sunday evening as the Avalanche took on the visiting Boston Bruins.

“It was a great experience,” Greer said with a smile. “Being in this building and in this atmosphere was a dream come true, obviously, so you work your whole life towards this goal. The work just started so I’m proud to live this experience and hopefully it’s not my last.”

The hot start in San Antonio helped prepare him to step into an Avalanche lineup in desperate need of someone with his skillset and begin contributing right away. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar wasted no time placing trust in the teenager, putting him on his team’s second line and giving him 16:34 of ice time, including two full minutes of power play time.

“Because he’s had a good start down in San Antonio, he’s a guy whose got some skill, got some grit, who wants to go to the front of the net, he’s willing to take pucks there and like I said he’s on pucks,” Bednar said of his roster’s youngest player. “When the puck turns over and put in their zone he’s on it right away and he’s skating. He’s getting aggressive and he’s got good legs and he wants to get there and he’s getting there. That’s the report from San Antonio so why not put him on (the power play)?”

The power play Greer played on came with just about nine minutes remaining in the third period and the Avalanche trailing 1-0. A year ago Greer was toiling away on the Boston Terrier’s third line. Fast forward to today and he was replacing Duchene on a unit with Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Tyson Barrie, and Mikko Rantanen in a situation the Avalanche badly needed a goal.

That goal never came, however, as the Avalanche were unable to beat Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask even though Greer made a solid play to create a scoring chance.

“From what we’ve seen, he’s a good option for us down there,” Bednar explained. “You saw the one power play move it to the low play, jams it at the net and he’s poking away and he’s doing what he can. Especially for his first game, I thought he was good.”

The always-confident Greer certainly didn’t think he was out of place in the situation, even though he admitted there was plenty of  opportunity to learn from the experience for his next opportunity.

“I think it’s something I excel in,” Greer said of the power play assignment. “Obviously, there’s a lot of good guys in here and I’m fortunate Coach gave me that chance to play on that power play so I tried to do my best and get better next time.”

Overall, Greer’s game produced some positive results as he ended the game with two shots on goal on a night the Avalanche struggled mightily in generating any offense at all. In a game the Avs were annihilated on the shot counter and in Corsi, Greer showed well in the advanced analytics as well, finishing the game with a 50% CF at even strength, an impressive feat given the Avalanche as a team finished at just over 40% CF.

If it weren’t obvious enough, you can count his coach as one of his believers.

“Greer, I thought did a good job of getting on pucks using his legs, playing with a little speed, taking the puck to the net a couple occasions we needed throughout our lineup,” Bednar said without any prompting.

Where Greer goes from here remains a bit of a mystery as Duchene is expected to return to skating with the team for tomorrow’s practice. When Duchene returns to game action, it will be curious if Bednar is impressed enough with Greer to keep him around for a longer look or if he’s destined to be quickly returned to San Antonio for more seasoning.