A year ago, Blackhawks center prospect Ryan Greene decided to return for his junior year at Boston University rather than turn pro, as the Hawks wanted him to do.
As that year winds down, the co-captain of the NCAA’s 10th-ranked team is glad he went back.
“It’s been very enjoyable for me to be able to step into a leadership role and have a different perspective throughout the whole year,” Greene said recently. “My game has continued to grow, which is what I wanted to achieve coming back to school here: to mature a little more and continue to round out my game.”
For now, Greene’s focus is on the Terriers’ upcoming postseason run. The 21-year-old Newfoundland native hopes to finish his college career having made the Frozen Four in all three years — and perhaps add a long-awaited national championship.
But once BU’s season ends, it doesn’t sound like Greene intends to spurn the Hawks again. He said he feels “definitely” ready for pro hockey this time around.
“I feel really good with where my game is,” he said. “I’m playing some of the best hockey I’ve ever played.”
Offensively, Greene ranks third on BU with 28 points in 32 games so far this season. That’s a similar point-per-game pace to his last two seasons, as he tallied 31 points in 38 games as a freshman and 36 points in 40 games as a sophomore — solid, albeit not spectacular, numbers.
He has specifically worked this season on getting more separation in plays off the walls as well as getting to high-danger areas around the net more — the latter being an emphasis throughout the Hawks’ prospect pipeline.
His defensive game stands out more, though, and has continued to improve in that regard even while taking on tougher line matchups. He backchecks aggressively and seems to always know where to be positionally to best support his defensemen in any given situation. Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson said Greene’s defensive analytics have been impressive.
Davidson has also been impressed with Greene’s improvement in the faceoff circle, where has gone from 46.3% as a freshman to 50.3% as a sophomore to 52.8% as a junior (and he was even higher at 54.6% before his last game). Faceoffs are one of many areas where Greene believes his experience helps him, which explains why he wanted to come back.
“That comes with being in college now for three years and taking faceoff after faceoff against older guys,” he said. “As you get more used to it, you can strategize a little more and find ways to win more faceoffs in certain situations.”
When optimistically sketching out the Hawks’ next-generation depth chart, Greene is a logical choice to be penciled in as their future checking-line center — perhaps in Jason Dickinson’s current role. North Dakota freshman center Sacha Boisvert is another guy who could be penciled in there.
It’s worth noting, however, that exercise assumes most of the organization’s prospects will hit and that they’ll all fit nicely into specific, stagnant roles once they do, neither of which is exactly realistic.
It is possible that Greene could struggle to adjust to pro hockey — the same way forward prospects Paul Ludwinski and Gavin Hayes have in Rockford this season. Alternatively, it is possible Greene could exceed expectations — the same way fellow BU product Alex Vlasic has.
“With players [like Greene], it’s easy to say [he’ll be a] third-line center, right?” Davidson said. “But when you’ve got a player with pace, reliability and hockey sense, who knows if they can play up with skilled wingers and fill a nice role up the lineup? And be that reliable player that can distribute, that can be a safety valve defensively [and that can] also bring some offensive production.”