Rangers Daily: All eyes on Liam Greentree; Red Wings GM blames roster

TL;DR

The Ontario Hockey League conference finals start Friday, with New York Rangers prospect Liam Greentree as a key focus. Greentree, who was traded from the Kings, had a standout junior season and is poised to make an impact next season.

Key points

OHL conference finals begin Friday
Liam Greentree is a top prospect for the Rangers
Greentree was traded from the Kings for Artemi Panarin
He scored 38 goals and 74 points this season
Greentree is tied for postseason scoring lead with 10 points

Ontario Hockey LeagueNew York RangersLos Angeles KingsLiam Greentree

The Ontario Hockey League conference finals begin Friday, and that means all eyes from a New York Rangers perspective are on top forward prospect Liam Greentree.

The 20-year-old was the centerpiece of the return from the Los Angeles Kings when the Rangers traded Artemi Panarin before the Olympic break. The 2024 first-round pick (No. 26 overall) exploded with 49 goals and 119 points in 64 games with Windsor in the OHL last season, but dipped to 38 goals and 74 points in 52 games this year.

However, there’s a lot to be intrigued with here. Greentree is Windsor’s captain, big (6-foot-2, 207 pounds), skilled, and tough. If that sounds like Brennan Othmann, another first-rounder who tore up the OHL — but didn’t pan out in the pros with the Rangers, well, yes, we understand the comparison.

But let’s give Greentree a fresh look and see if the Rangers have themselves a player, perhaps as soon as next season. He already signed his entry-level contract, and whether it’s with Hartford of the American Hockey League or with the big club on Broadway, we’ll get a better grasp on what Greentree can be moving forward.

For now, there’s seeing how he plays in the biggest games of his final junior season, with Windsor set for a best-of-7 series against Kitchener. Greentree is tied for the postseason scoring lead on Windsor with 10 points (five goals, five assists). Seven of those points came in an opening-round sweep against Guelph, when Greentree recorded three multi-point games (four goals, three assists). He slowed a bit in a second straight sweep over Flint (one goal, two assists, one ill-advised fight), besting fellow Rangers prospects Nathan Aspinall and Jacob Battaglia.

A year ago, he tore it up in the postseason, scoring 14 goals and totaling 24 points in 11 games for Windsor. Part of his success last season was playing on a line with stud prospect Ilya Protas, who was just named after scoring 29 goals for Hershey this season.