The Colorado Avalanche need someone like AJ Greer in the organization. Will they make the qualifying offer that keeps him here?
The Colorado Avalanche have a lot of contracts coming to their end this offseason. Several of them are entering restricted free agent status, which means the team must make the player a qualifying offer.
Several of those contracts are players the Avs have drafted and signed to entry-level contracts, which are now coming to the end. One of the players in that situation is AJ Greer.
Colorado drafted Greer with their first pick of the second round, the #39 selection. Colorado initially had the #31 pick as part of the Ryan O’Reilly trade. However, they traded down to the #39 pick so they could also get back their 2016 second rounder (Cam Morrison) and 2017 sixth-rounder (Denis Smironov). Those were the picks they’d sent to San Jose for Brad Stuart.
Now, as cool as it was to essentially wipe away the Stuart acquisition, Colorado could have used that #31 pick to select Sebastian Aho (242 games with 197 points) or Brandon Carlo (230 games and currently playing for the Stanley Cup).
Instead, they got Greer at #39. I’m not here to throw shade at Greer because drafting hindsight is always 20-20, and I think the rugged forward has value to the team.
The question is, will the team let him show that value?
Unlike Aho (#35) and Carlo (#37), Greer has few NHL games to his name. In fact, he has 37 spread
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out over all three seasons with the lion’s share being in the last two years. He’s recorded 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists). His first NHL goal was this last season.
The Colorado Avalanche signed Greer to his entry-level contract on July 1, 2016. That means it expires on June 30, 2019. The team must extend a qualifying offer to him by June 24.
His previous salary was $675,000. According to CapFriendly, the team’s offer must be 105% of that, so $708,750.
On the face of it, you might question why the team wouldn’t make a QO to Greer. After all, they are very comfortable within the salary cap. What’s more, they might expect AJ to keep playing most of his games at the AHL level, so he won’t count toward the cap anyway.
The problem is, Greer broke the golden rule. He Spoke Up. He didn’t give canned responses when he was asked about his demotion in February. Instead, according to BSN Avalanche, he was candid:
"“I’m pissed off. I should be pissed off. Anyone in that situation would be pissed off. I’m not going to take it lightly. I’m going to come here and play pissed off. It’s nothing against them but I don’t want anyone taking my dream away.”"
As rough and tumble as the hockey world is, with as many eff bombs as get dropped on the ice, I learned the hard way recently you don’t mention being pissed off about an Institution. Retribution is swift and vengeful.
I’m not saying the Colorado Avalanche are going to be petty about Greer. In the end, he talked about being a good kind of pissed off, the kind that motivates you. But teams like canned responses.
Greer finished the AHL season with 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 54 games. He also recorded 63 penalty minutes because he’s a man who plays with grit — or, as he puts it, an edge.
I think the Colorado Avalanche will make him a QO. I don’t think Greer is going to make a big splash in the NHL, though. I think the team needs a Cody McLeod-type of player, which Greer is. I think such a player would give room to the skill guys on the team.
Unfortunately, my way of thinking in that matter isn’t the favored thought right now. Watching how contentious these 2019 NHL playoffs have been, I think it will swing back that way. But will it be soon enough to do Greer any good?
I hope so. Like I said, I think A.J. Greer has value to add to the team.