Player evaluation: Greene

MATT GREENE Greene mug
This season: 75 games, 2 goals, 7 assists, 83 penalty minutes, 17:29 average ice time.
The good: In many ways, Greene has inherited that “warrior” role that Mattias Norstrom held during his time with the Kings. Greene is a tough, selfless teammate who is completely unafraid to block shots and do the dirty work that a stay-at-home defenseman has to do in order to be successful. Greene has the most prominent voice in the locker room and is known for keeping things loose but can also be serious when needed.
The bad: There’s no mistaking what Greene’s game is about. He’s a big (6-foot-3, 237 pounds), physical defenseman who doesn’t move quickly and doesn’t have much of an offensive game. His frequent pairing with Sean O’Donnell gives the Kings two smart, responsible defensemen but also put their two slowest defensemen together, which can be a risk. Also, in his greatest indignity, Greene lost the personal scoring race with O’Donnell.
Going forward: Greene will continue to be valuable to the Kings in the same role, and he will be even more effective if they can keep his minutes under control. Greene is going to be most effective as a fifth or sixth defensemen, but the Kings’ ability to keep him in that role perhaps depends on their ability to develop/acquire a fourth defenseman to regularly play with Jack Johnson. Greene’s personality and attitude are important for a young, still-developing team.


Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.