A.J. Greer thought it was over. Five years after getting drafted in the second round by the Avalanche, he found himself getting healthy-scratched in the AHL during the 2020-21 season while playing for the Islanders’ affiliate in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
He wondered if it was time to give up on his NHL dreams. It wasn’t the first time he had wondered that. It would be the last, though.
Less than two years later, Greer finds himself on the verge of making the Bruins’ opening night roster following a strong training camp and preseason. Not only has he survived two rounds of cuts this week, but he has been at least temporarily promoted to the third line, where he skated with Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith on Thursday.
The 25-year-old power forward won over Boston fans with a two-goal, seven-hit performance against the Rangers at TD Garden last week. His combination of size, physicality, skating and finish look like a needed addition to the Bruins’ bottom six.
Even a year ago, he could not have realistically imagined having this opportunity, especially with a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations.
“To be honest, if you asked me this a year ago, no,” Greer said on WEEI’s Skate Podcast.
Things began to change for the better on April 7, 2021, when Greer was traded to the Devils in the deal that sent Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac to the Islanders (a deal that would help the Islanders knock off the Bruins in the second round as Palmieri exploded for four goals in six games).
Greer’s inclusion in the trade did not garner many headlines. From the outside, he looked like little more than a throw-in, a player who was past the point of being considered a top prospect. But for Greer, the trade gave him the fresh start he needed.
He got a bigger role and more playing time with the Devils’ AHL affiliate in Binghamton, New York, and finished the season with 14 points in his 16 games there. The team moved to Utica, New York, for the 2021-22 season, and Greer felt just as at home there.
He put together the most productive pro season of his career, finishing with 52 points (22 goals, 30 assists) in 53 games. In the playoffs, he had six goals and two assists in five games.
Greer felt like he had finally found an identity and a consistency that had eluded him earlier in his career. He hoped there would be at least one NHL opportunity waiting for him over the summer, and the Bruins wound up being the team to offer it.
“I think I knew that there was going to be an opportunity looming just because of how good my game got to a certain point and how comfortable I felt with all aspects of my game,” Greer said. “I really found my identity, and I found a way to stick to it and be consistent with it. And that was something that before, when I was coming up, when I was younger, I was inconsistent and I was still trying to find the player that I am. … It really just started happening last year, and I felt comfortable with it. I had a big offseason. I came in ready for camp. So for me, just being able to have this opportunity is a blessing, and I just have to run with it.”
It wasn’t just Greer’s situation and consistency that had to change, though. His mindset had to change, and that may have been toughest of all. Greer has been open about his battles with mental health, and he says that some of the negative thoughts he let creep into his head would lead to those moments when he began to doubt himself.
“One hundred percent. All the time,” Greer said when asked about those doubts. “That stuff destroys you really, because you have this little voice in your head telling you, ‘You can’t do it. There’s no way that this happens or that happens.’ I was getting healthy-scratched in Bridgeport. I got healthy-scratched twice. I definitely thought it was over by then.
“…It affected definitely my job, but also my everyday life. I was in a very dark place at some points in my career, and those are the places where you either give up or you don’t. Definitely at times I told myself I was gonna give up. I don’t know why, but there just always seemed to be that little instant where it was like, ‘No, you can’t give up. You came this far.’”
If all that wasn’t enough, Greer also had an off-ice incident in 2019 when he and Sonny Milano -- then of the Blue Jackets, now a free agent -- were arrested in New York City following an altercation with a man over a nightclub bill.
Greer says the man reneged on an agreement and tried to get more money out of them, and that the physical part of the altercation never rose above Greer and Milano restraining the man (listen to more of Greer’s account at 17:04 in the podcast above). The charges of misdemeanor assault were eventually dropped, but the cloud from the incident hung over Greer well into the 2019-20 season.
“Eventually, the charges got dropped and nothing came from it, but the bad press and the media really affected me that year, both mentally and obviously for my job,” Greer said. “…It definitely was not a fun time, because I had to deal with it during the year. Five, six months after, I had to leave my team and go to New York and go to the court and stuff.”
Greer hopes and believes that all of the negatives from the last few years are now behind him. He found happiness in Utica and in the people around him last year. When he didn’t get called up to the NHL despite his stellar AHL play, he didn’t let it get him down the way it might have a year or two earlier.
“Once I just started enjoying the people around me and not thinking too much about my career and where it’s headed and I just really enjoyed the process, that’s when my play took off,” he said.
Now equipped with more joy and a clearer head, Greer might finally be on the verge of that NHL breakthrough he spent so many years worrying about.
“Now that I’m here with the Boston Bruins, I’m enjoying every single second of it,” he said. “Coming to the rink, seeing my name next to that logo, it’s something that puts into perspective where I have been a couple years ago -- mentally, physically, off the ice -- and now I’m here. It’s finally paid off. There’s a lot of work to be done, but like I said, just taking it day-by-day, not thinking too much about what’s ahead, and just enjoying it and having fun.”
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