Greenway remains with the Wild

[Hockey-78]

Jordan Greenway signed a two-year, $4.2 million contract to remain with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

 

IMO a much better signing than the previous one of Talbot.

[TonyOday]

If he plays like Jane this is a waste of money.

[Hockey-78]

2 hours ago, TonyOday said:

If he plays like Jane this is a waste of money.

Granted, he hasn't scored enough but the few games I've seen of him he's been physical, though.

 

Or dare I put it this way; of the current Wild roster he's one of few ****s in a bunch of *****es.

[Alexandron]

I am not sure if it was a smart decision. He played plenty of games in NHL (154 )during 3 seasons, but produced only 20 goals. Hope he will start on using his size to go the net and to produce consistently.

I am not happy about recent new signings Cramarossa and Mermis too, which are not presenting for me any interest. But we lost stupidly a nice smart consistent playmaker Sam Anas, who signed a contract with a St. Louis team. I looked through his stats during different ages, and he always showed pretty consistent play in his production . He played for the Iowa Wild team 4 seasons in a row and always impressed me. Last year he had 70 points in 63 games (20 goals and 50 assists). What else do we need from the player if he is so productive? His size was small, but even with that size the player could be a treasure for the team like our Spurgeon. And in opposite way, huge size of the player does not give much advantage for the team if the player is not smart enough. The most sad part for me (I hate that part) from the Wild organization that they did not find 1 game to play Sam Anas for the big club in 4 seasons. He was really merit that tryout. I was proposing his tryout for 3 seasons in a row as well as Brennan Menell,  Mayhew and Belpedio. Are we a generous organization? If we will lose a valuable prospects for nothing then we will never see a Stanley Cup finals that way of scouting, developing, wasting, diminishing. Any smart productive prospect player should have at least 50 games of tryout in the big club before trading him somewhere else for nothing.

 

In general, the Wild organization is full of surprises this fall. Not sure how far we will go this season with a current team roster. Just always hoping for better because our life is too short.

[lynxrattle]

What is the one objective thing an AHL player can do to show he deserves a chance in the NHL? Anas did that. He got points. That is a fact. He looks too small to play in the NHL, or he's not going to fit in Minnesota Wild, etc are opinions. Why bother play in Iowa if no matter what you do you won't get one game in four years. Anas's treatment reeks of country club mentality. "No matter what you do, you won't get a chance, because you don't look like you belong to the country club."

 

I hope our organisation starts respecting achievement.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 hour ago, lynxrattle said:

What is the one objective thing an AHL player can do to show he deserves a chance in the NHL? Anas did that. He got points.

 

 

Unfortunately, this happens WAY too often league-wide, not just with the Wild.

There could be lots of reasons....could be player attitude or overall makeup (things behind the scenes we don't see), could be timing (player age vs what the organization wants to do or is looking to do at the NHL level), could very well be organizational....as in management simply misses the boat on a player that SHOULD have been given more than just a passing glance.
Or could be just dumb luck. Bad luck.

I can see your point of why should a player even try, but, if you are that player, and have a real desire to play in the NHL you continue to toil away, as they say, even if things look bleak for you in a particular organization, because you may find yourself somewhere else that would appreciate what you can do and give you that shot.

That's where those 'feel good' stories you sometimes hear come from....Player A, toiling away wherever, and here he is, playing in a big playoff game, possibly on the verge of helping an NHL team win a title.

In the case of Anas, perhaps his size really was working against him....fair or not.
And perhaps the Wild, in this particular case, were wrong not to give him a real shot at the NHL.
Maybe he will get that with the Blues if he doesn't lose heart.

[TonyOday]

Anas is an AHL player and that is what he will be.

[Alexandron]

42 minutes ago, TonyOday said:

Anas is an AHL player and that is what he will be.

How do you know that without trying him at least one game in NHL? Player had 70 points last season and was merit to have that attempt. I think it is a shame for the Wild organization and lost him for nothing. I liked the chemistry built in the line Rau - - Anas - Mayhew in the Iowa Wild team. Why we did not tried that line a couple games in the Wild team?

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

58 minutes ago, TonyOday said:

Anas is an AHL player and that is what he will be.

 

And then there is this...

[Alexandron]

13 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

And then there is this...

Greenway ...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

6 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

Greenway ...

 

Yes, Greenway has gotten more of a shot in the NHL than Anas ever did...likely for two reasons:

1-- Wild drafted Greener in the 2nd round while Anas went undrafted.
Every team wants to say "their pick was a good one". Thus, whomever they pick, usually gets advantages in opportunity over those they didn't.

2-- Size.
Fair or not, Greenway has it, Anas doesn't, and if all things were equal, teams want the bigger skilled guy as opposed to the smaller skilled guy.

[Alexandron]

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Yes, Greenway has gotten more of a shot in the NHL than Anas ever did...likely for two reasons:

1-- Wild drafted Greener in the 2nd round while Anas went undrafted.
Every team wants to say "their pick was a good one". Thus, whomever they pick, usually gets advantages in opportunity over those they didn't.

2-- Size.
Fair or not, Greenway has it, Anas doesn't, and if all things were equal, teams want the bigger skilled guy as opposed to the smaller skilled guy.

Still the question who is better? The example is our Spurgeon . Smartest player for the team, but his size is small. Greenaway did not showed me much in 154 NHL games and even in a few AHL games he did not showed me much too. Is he playing for money or to make fans happy with his play? Hope for his future improvement. Sorry, my tablet automatically changed his last name. Too difficult for me to make the correction with my fingers at the end of this message.

[Gnarkill]

Leaving the Size thing completely out of it..

 

Anas is 27 and probably is what he's going to be at this point.. a good AHL player that may get a cup of coffee here or there in the NHL with injury call-ups. Had 0 trade value.

 

Greenway is 23, still developing and has yet to hit his prime. Still has trade value.

 

No brainer on who to keep if we're comparing the two......

 

I could also see the Wild moving on from some of the "older" AHL players so they can actually use those minutes in Iowa for developing young prospects moving forward.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Gnarkill

[lynxrattle]

If there ever was a chance for Anas to make it on the NHL, he wasted it playing in Minnesota's organisation. But yeah, Iowa definitely needs to cleared of older players.

[lynxrattle]

Back on the topic here: Greenway has been disappointing, but apparently Guerin has told him that in the exit interview. Now it remains to be seen, if Greenway can stop being nice on ice, and find that inner demon from the depths of himself and start playing the way he needs to play, and has the frame to be successful with. 

[Alexandron]

On 10/13/2020 at 9:15 PM, lynxrattle said:

If there ever was a chance for Anas to make it on the NHL, he wasted it playing in Minnesota's organisation. But yeah, Iowa definitely needs to cleared of older players.

Agree, he wasted his time from the age of 23-27 y.o. by playing in the Minnesota Wild  organization without having any games in NHL. Anas is a smart talented playmaker consistently showing that through his entire career. Hopefully, St. Louis will use him in NHL too. Unfortunately, the Wild organization did not see this, but was confused about his frame. Greenway has a very good frame, but his talent is still questionable. 154 NHL games was not enough to see it yet. Talent is impossible to build. Player must to be born with it. Frame is easier to create than talent. And then what we need more? Talent or the frame?....

[Alexandron]

On 10/13/2020 at 3:59 PM, Gnarkill said:

Leaving the Size thing completely out of it..

 

Anas is 27 and probably is what he's going to be at this point.. a good AHL player that may get a cup of coffee here or there in the NHL with injury call-ups. Had 0 trade value.

 

Greenway is 23, still developing and has yet to hit his prime. Still has trade value.

 

No brainer on who to keep if we're comparing the two......

 

I could also see the Wild moving on from some of the "older" AHL players so they can actually use those minutes in Iowa for developing young prospects moving forward.

I wish to see that, but, unfortunately, I  do see the opposite movements.

I do not think the Iowa team will be younger after losing Anas(27 y.o.) to St. Louis. Here are the recent re-signings and signings:

1. Oct.8. Rau re-signed, 27 y.o.; 42 NHL games(2 goals;3 assists);

2. Oct.8. Bartkowski re-signed, 32 y.o.; 255 NHL games in 10 seasons (8 goals;40 assists);

3. Oct.9. Cramarossa signed; 27 y.o.; 59 NHL games (4 goals;6 assists);

4. Oct.9. Mermis signed;26 y.o.; 20 NHL games (1 goal;3 assists);

5. Oct.19. McCoshen signed, 25 y.o.; 60 NHL games (4 goals; 3 assists).

 

We can see their stats are not very impressive by playing in NHL. So many questions came up again like we had last season regarding those difficult to explain multiple signings. Why did we signed them (especially the last 4 players)? And definitely, they will use those valuable minutes in Iowa. And where our young promising prospects  will play if the space is already occupied by others older players? We had this fall such a best drafting season, but what we will do with those prospects if the space is filled every year by someone? They will start looking for the place in KHL or to look for a place in other NHL club? Something should be changed.

 

[Gnarkill]

Seeing all those names on 1 year deals come in now it does strike me as a surprise that Anas wasn't signed to a 1 year deal too. Unless there was something we don't know about behind the scenes maybe he wanted more money, more term or an actual NHL shot and the Wild wasn't willing. The big question I have now after the latest moves is why sign Rau and Cramarossa? there has to be more to the Anas thing than we all see cause it would make more sense to keep him in one of those spots if it was between him and those two. I get why they would keep Greenway over Anas but not why they would have Rau and Cramarossa over Anas.

 

We had a great draft this fall imo! sadly it will take most of those players at least a year or two before coming over to the AHL and I think those older guys were signed as stop-gaps to fill the Iowa roster(again I'm surprised Anas wasn't one of these if they had to sign a couple).. if someone out plays any of them none of these guys signed should be boxing anyone with talent out of a big minute AHL roster spot or NHL call-up. I also wonder how high the new regime is on anyone that was drafted prior to this year aside from Kaprizov. We should start to see them taking over top minutes for Iowa in the next couple years if they are in the big club's long-term plans. This could also just be BG being BG and putting his stamp on the whole development system along with the big club. If that's good or not has yet to be seen.

 

As for Greenway I really think he's on his way out too if he doesn't step up this year.. BG got in his ear at the end of the season and laid it out for him so all we can do is wait and see. I really hope he turns it around and if he doesn't I hope he's traded before his value drops any lower. The guy has all the tools he just can't seem to put them together and consistently play with the edge he should when he's that size and has that amount of skill.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Gnarkill

[Alexandron]

I agree regarding Anas. He should be signed for 1 year deal at least instead of signing Cramarossa. As well as agree regarding Greenway too by knowing that BG did not liked the current outcome of the Greenway's production despite of having all tools for it. Probably, this season will be crucial for Greenway if he wants to be here.  We have plenty of promising prospects to fill his space.

   I am glad (just found out from the Michael Russo tweeter) that promising defenseman Belpedio was signed for one year deal. Only  our  other defenseman Menell remains unsigned, but he is playing now in KHL. Hope, they will sign him next year. Definitely, that talented Minnesotan player will be much more experienced after playing there, and  who is having 1 goal and 9 assists in 10 games already with Dinamo Minsk team.

[lynxrattle]

How about that Greenway! He's starting to look like a power forward. That entrance and pass in OT shows some hockey IQ that reveals how little hockey IQ I have, thinking Greener doesnt really have much of it.

[Alexandron]

7 hours ago, lynxrattle said:

How about that Greenway! He's starting to look like a power forward. That entrance and pass in OT shows some hockey IQ that reveals how little hockey IQ I have, thinking Greener doesnt really have much of it.

Of course, after a serious talk with GM before signing a contract his mentality positively changed. Hope, he will continue that way. His size and his long stick could be very helpful for the team.

[lynxrattle]

3 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Of course, after a serious talk with GM before signing a contract his mentality positively changed. Hope, he will continue that way. His size and his long stick could be very helpful for the team.

It feels like Guerin is gaining control of the locker room. 

[Alexandron]

On 2/1/2021 at 11:37 AM, lynxrattle said:

It feels like Guerin is gaining control of the locker room. 

Control is always better than the chaos in mentality and discipline.

[Mad Dog]

So what do the Wild fans think of Greenway now? For someone as big as he is, he skates quite well and he has a good hockey sense in front of the net.  I also like his shot, but his release is something he needs to keep working on, in my opinion.  I think with a good playmaker, he can be a really good power forward in this league.

[Alexandron]

1 hour ago, Mad Dog said:

So what do the Wild fans think of Greenway now? For someone as big as he is, he skates quite well and he has a good hockey sense in front of the net.  I also like his shot, but his release is something he needs to keep working on, in my opinion.  I think with a good playmaker, he can be a really good power forward in this league.

I think so too. It seems he is developing into a good power forward.