Wild top prospect expected to bounce back quickly from demotion.

Some good news off the heels of some bad news.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Wild top prospect expected to bounce back quickly from demotion.
Carlos Gonzalez / Star Tribune / Zuma

The Minnesota Wild announced some disappointing news this week when they announced that Jordan Greenway, one of the organizations most promising prospects, would be demoted down to the American Hockey League after his 9th game of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season.

Although the move may have appeared like one designed to avoid burning a year on Greenway's entry level contract that is not the case and we received official confirmation of that fact directly from head coach Bruce Boudreau himself. Although the decision to send Greenway down to the AHL with the Iowa Wild was eventually made by Wild general manager Paul Fenton, Boudreau revealed to Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo that Greenway would be back on Sunday when the Wild embark on their latest road trip.

“He’s going to go down and have two great games and then be all ready to go on the West Coast trip,” the Wild coach said as per The Athletic.

In spite of the promise that led to him being drafted as a 2nd round pick (50th overall) in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft Greenway has never scored a goal for the Wild at the NHL level. Although the 21 year old left winger still has plenty of time to develop with 15 games under his belt the Wild certainly would have expected him to produce by now, in fact Greenway has averaged less than a shot on goal per game this season with the Wild. 

It sounds like the decision to send him down for two games in Iowa was an effort to both get him more playing time, as well as giving him a chance to boost his confidence moving forward. Boudreau confirmed as much while poking some rather amusing jabs at his own hockey career in the American Hockey League.

 “Obviously I stayed in (the American Hockey League) way too long (in my playing career), but when I’d go down, it was great for me. The competition is really good, but at the same time, if he does well, he can gain confidence and come back where he wants to shoot the puck a little bit more than he’s been shooting it right now.

“I don’t think it ever hurts a first-year player basically (15) games into his pro career to go down and get a couple games.”

The good news for the Wild is the team still seemingly has confidence in their young player, and hopefully that confidence is well placed.

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