Greene officially re-joins Kings as Pro Scout

Matt Greene has officially re-joined the Los Angeles Kings as a Pro Scout, the team officially announced on Monday. Greene, who had his contract bought out in late June, was expected to serve as the club’s Pacific Division AHL scout as a part of his job description, according to team sources at the NHL Draft. Additional coverage from earlier in the summer is available here and here.

Greene had been working out regularly at the team’s El Segundo training facility, and there were a few mid-summer murmurings that he was keeping his options open to continue his playing career, but the expectation was that Greene would ultimately join the organization in a pro scouting capacity. That has come to fruition, and it’s great to see the accomplished team leader and veteran defender so quickly and seamlessly bridge his playing and post-playing careers.

The earlier articles linked above contain odes to his style of play and what he meant to the Kings when the doors to the dressing room were closed. Those who cover the team and have relationships with the players and management understand that despite limitations in mobility that became more pronounced in recent years, the impact his and Jarret Stoll’s arrivals had after the June, 2008 trade with Edmonton veered well beyond the numbers and into the essential intangibles associated with the club during their Stanley Cup campaigns. There is a diverse set of criteria that can facilitate a good team becoming a championship team, and the difficult-to-quantify and often vague “leadership” quotient isn’t a glaring or easy-to-produce statistic. It’s not even a statistic. It’s a nebulous designation with a definition that changes from person to person. But Kings reporters, fans and management understand that Greene had it, Stoll had it, and they will both be working for hockey operations this season. Congratulations, Matt, and here’s to the success you will forge in your post-playing career.