Boasting a 6-6, 227-pound frame, Jordan Greenway is a massive man.
That’s one reason why the Canton, N.Y., native who turns 22 years old on Feb. 16 has reached the National Hockey League, where he’s in his first full season with the Minnesota Wild.
But all it took for the mighty left-handed shooting left wing to feel insignificant and small was stepping on NHL ice for his big-league debut in March of last year.
“I was playing against guys who I grew up watching every single day,” explained Greenway, who was selected 50th overall by Minnesota in the 2015 NHL draft. “Having that mentality of ‘I belong here, I can do a lot of good things here and I can dominate here’ is something I struggled with last year. Still, to this day, building confidence is something and a lesson that I’ve got to drill into my head.”
Another facet of hockey Greenway must make strides in is consistency. Having an impact on a regular basis is something the Wild coaching staff has harped on him about all season.
“I have to bring my game, if not ten out of ten times, eight out of ten times,” Greenway stated. “Not five out of ten.”
Greenway’s quest for confidence and consistency came to a crossroads in the first month of this campaign.
After signing with the Wild last spring following his third season at Boston University, he appeared in six regular-season games and recorded an assist, before raising his play and registering a goal and an assist in five Stanley Cup playoff contests.
As one of Minnesota’s better performers in the postseason, Greenway was a favorite to fill one of the club’s open roster spots entering this season. When training camp broke, he had accomplished that mission.
But after posting just one assist and not playing up to the Wild brass’ expectations in the campaign’s first nine games, Greenway was relegated to Iowa of the American Hockey League to build his confidence.
He did. And it cost the home fans hats.
Greenway, who played for Minnesota on Oct. 25 versus the Los Angeles Kings before being demoted, notched an assist the next night for Iowa on home ice against the Colorado Eagles. The following evening, playing in a game for the third consecutive night, he tallied a trio of goals as Iowa again hosted the Eagles.
Greenway was summoned to Minnesota the next day and scored in his first game back with the Wild on Oct. 29 at the Vancouver Canucks. Two matches later, he enjoyed his first multi-point performance in The Show when he picked up two assists at the St. Louis Blues.
As of Feb. 13, Greenway has 17 points (9-8—17) in 56 games on the season, and he hasn’t returned to the minors since his first and only stint.
“Being sent down was an eye-opener,” he said. “It was good for me though. It showed me you have to bring it every night or someone else will.”
Being consistent and confident and learning how to use his colossal body to his advantage were recurring themes for Greenway during his college career.
Gifted with a gargantuan stature, it was easy for Greenway to excel when he played the sport while growing up.
“I was playing against smaller guys,” he said of his younger days, “and they couldn’t get the puck away from me, whether it was because of what I was doing or what they couldn’t.”
But when Greenway headed to BU ahead of the 2015-16 campaign, he was in for a rude awakening.
“I was now playing against a lot of big, strong guys, and I had to find different ways to have success,” he remembered. “I had to learn what I had to do to be able to protect the puck and how to use my size against guys who were my size.”
While it was a struggle in the beginning, facing bigger, stronger and older competition helped Greenway upgrade his game, and he soon found his groove and started to consistently deliver for the Terriers.
What also allowed Greenway to glisten at BU was his ability to trust himself. For that, he thanks David Quinn, his coach with the Terriers who’s now the bench boss of the New York Rangers.
“He gave me a lot of confidence,” Greenway asserted. “There were times when I had a couple of bad games, and he found ways to pick me up and build my confidence. Going into college, my first year, he put me on the top line, top power play, and there were a lot of times I thought I played bad and he was going to take me off the power play.
“He always made sure that I learned my lessons. He was hard on me in practice, but at the same time he allowed me to continue to do my thing, find my way. He did a lot of great things for me on the ice, but there are a lot of things he did off the ice that without his help I don’t know if I would be here (in the NHL) today.”
Greenway totaled 26 points (5-21—26) in 39 games as a freshman and 31 points (10-21—31) in 37 contests as a sophomore. In his junior campaign, which culminated with the Terriers winning the Hockey East championship, he tallied 35 points (13-22—35) in 36 matches.
In the second half of his junior year, Greenway also competed at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, where he appeared in five games and scored a goal while also making history, becoming the first-ever African-American to suit up for the United States Olympic hockey team.
“I didn’t even know it in the beginning,” he revealed. “It’s something I’ll always have with me my whole life. I don’t think it’s hit me yet as much as it will down the road. But it’s definitely something I’ll look back on. It’s special.”
Greenway considers the Olympic experience another progression in his development.
“It was my third year of college, and I felt I was starting to do some really good things,” he said. “It was just another step where I played against a lot of really good, big, strong players who, for the most part, played pro. I thought I had a pretty good showing, and I came back with even more confidence going into the latter half of my season at BU. I thought things changed dramatically – the way I played, how I handled the game, how I handled myself every day, everything.”
When that campaign concluded, Greenway felt he was ready to turn pro and inked a deal with the Wild.
“I wanted to get to a point where I felt like I dominated the game every single night and I was a factor in some way,” he said. “There were a lot of times, even up to the Olympics, where I didn’t think that was the case. When I came back from the Olympics, I thought I did that. I had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, and I felt it was the right time.”
All Greenway needs to do now to remain in the Wild lineup is stay confident and consistently leave his mark. There’s no doubt he already has the size.
