A.J. Greer Brings Energy to Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers knew A.J. Greer would inject energy into the team, but the 27-year-old forward has stepped up in other areas, too.

The Florida Panthers are no strangers to high-energy and adrenaline-inducing games, and it looks like the Panthers have found a key player in keeping up the energy throughout games early in forward AJ Greer, a free agent picked up by the Panthers during the offseason.

 The 27-year-old, who was drafted 39th overall in the 2015 draft by the Colorado Avalanche, has played with the Colorado Avalanche, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, and most recently, the Calgary Flames before signing with the Florida Panthers with a two-year, 1.7 million dollar contract. 

So far, Greer has fired up his teammates by proving he is not afraid to get gritty when it counts. In the home opener against the Boston Bruins, Greer dropped the gloves with Boston’s Mark Kastelic early in the period due to a hit on Greer’s linemate Jesper Boqvist. It got the building fired up, and 32 seconds later, Sam Bennett put the Panthers ahead 1-0.

It gave them the energy they needed for a dominant win over the Boston Bruins.“I think that it was the right time to kind of step up,” Greer said.”It was eventually going to happen at some point in that game. So might as well get it out early, and it's a good fight. And we fed off that energy. We got two quick goals right after that. So, you know, I'm there to defend my teammates.” 

With injuries plaguing the team,Greer has also impacted the Panthers' penalty kill playing 1:13 of shorthanded time per game), which ranks as a top-10 PK in the league. He was not given much PK time earlier in his career, but he has consistently proven why he earned that spot with the Panthers. 

With his two assists, he wass tied with Mackie Samoskevich with ten individual scoring chances created for third on the team (per Naturalstattrick.com) going into yesterday’s game, making his impact far beyond bringing energy in scrums. 

Greer has also earned praise from Head Coach Paul Maurice, who noted how impressed he was with him at practice: “I’m really impressed with his drive at practice. He pushes hard as a big man who moves well. When you get a big man that moves that fast and is a forechecking, hard player, there’s not much they can truly show you other than effort here because we don’t want to run straight through a defenseman in these things.” 

Maurice has also noted that Greer brings a lot to the games and puts in the effort, and essentially is like a workhorse who has the potential to become “hyper consistent, very big, very fast, very physical man” that “ can play in your top nine.”

And, due to Alexander Barkov’s injury and Matthew Tkachuck’s illness, he is getting a chance to prove himself, as Greer’s full-time on-ice per game has nearly doubled from 8:50 to 12:58 from last year with the Flames to this year with the Panthers and has taken it in stride. He has even moved up to the third line after Barkov and Tkachuck’s absence, earning around sixteen minutes TOI in the Panther’s second matchup against Boston. 

Maurice says Greer has been a “benefactor of more ice time” and has “helped us win.” Based on how Paul Maurice and his teammates have spoken about him, AJ Greer is set to have a big year with the Panthers, bringing his energy and grit to the ice every chance he gets. 

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Mia Stavola is a new intern at PucksandPalms.com, give her a follow on Twitter at mstavola7.