Not since April 9, 2016 – the final game in a dismal 2015-16 season for the Maple Leafs - has Colin Greening played an NHL game. It’s been more than two years since he has been to The Show, but Greening still sees himself as an NHL player.
You might ask then, why, if that is still his belief, would he opt to re-sign with the Maple Leafs' AHL affiliate for the 2018-19 season when there is next to no chance that he breaks camp with the big club in the fall?
At this point in his career, Greening sees a value in having a comfort level with an organization and he has found one with the Maple Leafs and the city of Toronto.
#Marlies News: The @TorontoMarlies have re-signed forward Colin Greening for the 2018-19 season.
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) June 18, 2018
Details ➡️ https://t.co/UzZIjL8iEk#MarliesLive #ThisIsMore pic.twitter.com/2WYchLWrui
“When you find a good thing, you want to stay with it and this has been a great thing for me and my family,” explained Greening after re-signing with the Marlies last summer.
Two years ago, a solid showing at the end of the 2015-16 NHL season – 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 30 games after being acquired by the Maple Leafs in the trade that sent Dion Phaneuf to the Senators – Greening hoped would leave him in good stead to start the following season with the Maple Leafs. It was not to be though as the team turned to a plethora of talented rookies, which left veterans like Greening, Brooks Laich and Milan Michalek to swallow their pride and ply their trade with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
To his credit, Greening took the demotion in stride and had a productive season, scoring 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 69 games while providing a much-needed veteran presence on a team full of young prospects the Maple Leafs have high hopes for.
“It was a lot of fun last year, I don’t want to call myself a mentor, but if younger players can see the habits that I bring every day, I think that’s just a by-product of how you approach the game whether it’s the NHL or AHL level,” Greening said after his first campaign with the Marlies. “It’s very easy in this organization because they treat you so well.”
The team was impressed with what they saw out of Greening that they rewarded him with a one-year, one-way contract worth $750,000 ahead of the 2016-17 season.
“Hopefully there’s an opportunity for me to come and play a few games here (with the Maple Leafs),” said Greening. “Maybe there will be, maybe there won’t be, but you have to be prepared for that. That’s part of being a professional and that’s something I take pride in. I think that’s something the organization has noticed and I think that’s why they brought me back.”
MORE: Sheldon Keefe expects to be back with Toronto Marlies next season
Greening followed up his maiden year with the Marlies with a 16-goal, 13-assist regular season campaign to help the club claim the Calder Cup. For a player who is now 32 and has not played an NHL game in over 26 months, there could be worse positions for him to find himself. Shy of a disastrous amount of injuries in the preseason, Greening knows he will not be starting the season with the Maple Leafs. However, he also knows had he opted to sign elsewhere, there would be no guarantee he would start in the NHL either.
Then what was the benefit of staying in the Maple Leafs organization? Unlike many other teams that have AHL affiliates in smaller cities a long way from the NHL city, Greening is guaranteed to know where he will be living even if he does not know, for sure yet, where he will be playing. That means something to him.
“Whether you’re with the Leafs or the Marlies, you’re still in Toronto which is a huge advantage for myself and my family,” Greening said last year. “I love the organization; I love the system that they play. I’ve enjoyed my time with the Marlies, my wife loves it here. It’s a great city to live in. I’m very lucky to do that because I know there are people in their careers and I’ve talked to guys where sometimes they haven’t enjoyed the cities they’ve played in, but I certainly enjoy playing here.”
Since Brendan Shanahan took over as team president and Mike Babcock was hired as head coach, the Maple Leafs have placed premium on finding players who “live right” as the coach so often says. Players who eat right, sleep right, work out right and exhibit professionalism are the ones the management group want around, especially veterans who demonstrate an example by which the team’s wealth of young prospects can aspire to.
“He’s a big guy, he can play real tough, he can shoot the puck a ton,” said Babcock. “He’s a good man.”
Travis Dermott, a highly-touted 21-year old defenseman who split 2017-18 between Maple Leafs and the feeder club, spent his first professional season with the Marlies. Asked what he thought of Greening as a teammate, it’s clear why the team feels there is value in having players like Greening around.
“He brought a good presence on the ice, he’s a really good penalty killer but off the ice he was more of an asset for me,” said Dermott. “It was cool looking up to him and seeing a guy that’s been up there. He does everything right off the ice, nutrition, in the gym all the time making sure his game is on point so he was a cool guy to look up to and see if I want to make it to where I want to get, I have to do everything that he’s doing.”
MORE: Can Capitals keep John Carlson in D.C.?
Away from the rink, Dermott said Greening is just “one of the boys” but when it was time to work, his shift into business-mode was clear.
“He’s pretty strict with his regimen and what he does to make sure he’s on top of his game,” said Dermott. “He’s a pretty focused guy around the rink.”
Even at the dinner table, Dermott learned from Greening. He recalled a night two seasons ago where he saw Greening eating pasta and white rice during a pregame meal and asked why. As far as he had known, whole grains were better for the body. Greening explained to Dermott that whole grains release energy slower so immediately prior to a game, it was better to eat pasta and white rice, foods that concentrate their energy-unlock into a shorter timeframe leaving you with more energy during the game. Dermott said he was amazed at how willing Greening was to share information that he had picked up throughout his career.
“I ended up asking him one question and we had a half-hour conversation about nutrition,” Dermott said. “He’s real eager to teach us everything he knows and makes sure that he’s an open book and if we have any questions he’s available for us.”
In 2016-17, Greening collected $3.2 million in the final year of a three-year, $7.95 million contract signed with the Ottawa Senators in September 2013. One way or another, he was going to get the money owed to him. A veteran of 286 NHL games, it could have been easy to put it on cruise-control, cut corners, sulk and certainly not be a willing resource to younger players after being assigned to the AHL. Clearly, that was not the case.
“I feel good about it, it brings value to myself personally,” said Greening, on how he kept a positive attitude and held himself to the highest of professional standards. “I feel a lot of pride when it comes to that because for me, I still want to play professional hockey. Whatever level that might be I have to put the work in and as corny as it sounds, let the cards fall where they may. For me it’s just about good habits. It helps me mentally if I can play as well as I can at any level, you just have a sense of pride in yourself. What I’ve learned is the difference between having a negative and positive attitude just changes your whole life, it changes your daily routine.”
MORE: Biggest sleepers, risers and fallers to watch at the NHL Draft
However, as much as he embraced serving as a mentor to younger players with the Marlies, Greening’s goal is still to return to the NHL. He learned from experience early in his career that you never can tell when an opportunity will come up. When he signed his entry level contract in April 2010 with the Senators, Greening knew he was joining a playoff caliber team where NHL roster spots would be hard to come by.
But the 2010-11 season did not go well in Ottawa. Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Michalek all missed significant time. Mike Fisher, Alexei Kovalev and Chris Kelly were traded as the team underperformed; and before he knew it, Greening found himself making his NHL debut on Feb. 1, 2011 against the Devils.
He went on to play 24 games that season, scoring 13 points (six goals, seven assists).
“I don’t think any of us that were coming in for the first year thought we would play NHL games but it happened where there were some injuries and the team wasn’t doing well. Whether it’s injuries or people have to take time away, there’s always opportunities for you to play,” said Greening. “If I play well enough and the opportunity arises, perhaps I can get a few games with the Leafs and prove myself. The number one goal is always to play in the NHL and I think that’s regardless of what league you play in, that’s exactly what you want to do so that’s the mentality I take into it but at the end of the day, there’s a finite number of spots and if I have to go to the Marlies, I’m perfectly fine with that.”