It seems to me that one of the things Ottawa's trying to figure out is precisely what to do with Colin Greening heading into next season.
Greening, who begins his three-year, $2.65MM AAV deal in the 2014-2015 season, has been the subject of
many trade rumors over the last few months. It's clear that the team really wants to give some minutes to some of the younger, probably more talented players pushing through the ranks.
Also worrisome: the team's insistence on shopping him -- and the rumors that there aren't many interested suitors -- sort of signals that the team's biting the bullet on a contract that's starting to feel
a bit poisonous for a fourth-line winger.
Despite some of the red flags, the team wagered on Colin Greening repeating (or at least coming close to repeating) his 37-point season in 2011-2012, anchored by seventeen goals. It seemed then -- and it certainly seems now -- that Greening was riding the coattails of a red-hot Jason Spezza that year. Three years later, here we are, wondering if any team will take him and his deal for a marginal asset.
What's a bit odd is that Greening should be intriguing to at least one or two teams. When he wants to be fast, he's pretty fast. When he wants to be strong, he's pretty strong. But, stuck in a grinding role primarily with Zack Smith and Chris Neil, he is rendered almost completely ineffective. That line in and of itself needs to be purged for the rest of eternity, but I'm not going to foist all of the blame on quality of linemate drag here. He hasn't really established that he belongs any higher up in the lineup, and that's what makes things problematic for Paul MacLean.
Assuming Greening isn't dealt and is part of the 23-man roster heading into next year, how do you approach fixing his game? It seems to me he may look considerably more effective playing with one of Derek Grant or JG Pageau, and perhaps Erik Condra on the other wing. That's a trio on a fourth-line that could post respectable even-strength splits. Problem is, it seems like something of a pipe-dream -- you can sort of see Zack Smith (OK) getting fourth-line center minutes behind the likes of Turris/Zibanejad/Legwand, but more problematically, you can't see any way that veteran enforcer Chris Neil is removed from the lineup.
And there we are again, with the Greening-Smith-Neil line playing a bunch of minutes per night.
What's your thought here on Greening? Is he fixable? Is it a matter of moving him away from Smith and Neil and towards other players? Or, is Greening really at risk of losing minutes to some of the younger forwards going forward? Or, is all of this irrelevant, and we are staring down the gun of a 14-15-22 line playing 15-minutes a night next season?
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