Red Wings NHL Draft Prospects Profile 1.0 features a high-scoring forward with ideal size
The Detroit Red Wings have the No. 15 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, which puts them in an ideal position to land an excellent, high-scoring forward.
The Detroit Red Wings have a plethora of options to roll with for their 15th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, but one prospect who jumps out is Liam Greentree. Much like defenseman Carter Yakemchuk, whom I had going to the Wings in Mock Draft 1.0, Greentree’s size should impress fans in the Motor City, except he’s a winger as opposed to a defenseman.
So let’s take a deep dive into Greentree’s game, including his numbers over the past two seasons, what kind of game he brings, what his strengths are, and his overall weaknesses. By the end of this article, you will probably find yourself intrigued if general manager Steve Yzerman has someone calling out Greentree’s name when the 15th pick rolls around on draft day, assuming the Wings stay in that spot.
Who is Liam Greentree?
Liam Greentree is one of quite a few prospects in the 2024 draft class with pristine size, clocking in at 6’3, 200 lbs. His size alone gives him the potential to play power forward at the pro level, and his overall productivity has been something sensational for the Windsor Spitfires.
Greentree finished the 2022-23 regular season with a solid 25 goals - first among rookies - and 20 helpers, giving him 45 points in 61 games. It was a rather remarkable outing for a prospect in his first OHL season, but he doubled that latter number in 2023-24, finishing the year with 90 points, 36 goals, and 54 helpers.
What’s even more amazing is the fact Windsor finished the 2023-24 OHL season as one of the worst teams in OHL hockey that scored just 247 goals, tied for 12th overall in the 20-team league. Had Greentree been part of a better team, who knows what the 2023-24 season may have brought, but he nonetheless showed us he could play solid hockey even on a bad team, at least from a productivity standpoint.
What kind of game does Greentree bring?
Liam Greentree is still a work in progress when it comes to skating, especially his initial acceleration. That said, once he’s at full speed, he’s faster than most prospects playing at the OHL level, and that’s a major plus for someone his size.
He’s also agile and has decent edgework, and once he hits maximum speed, Greentree makes it tough for opponents to disrupt plays or to try and retake puck possession. Once he masters his initial acceleration, Greentree will start creating more space and separation, so that’s something to watch if Detroit rolls with him and you follow his progress over the next few seasons at the junior level.
His stickhandling is remarkable, and it’s another reason he’s able to keep the puck away from opponents despite his solid but unspectacular skating. His overall length and stickhandling, of course, lead to some impressive shots, and it’s one reason he’s got 61 career goals so far with Windsor.
But excellent stickhandling and length alone are only a couple of ingredients to an outstanding shot. Greentree’s shooting mechanics are on point, and you’ll notice that his shot contains a trifecta of power, speed, and accuracy. So you can only imagine what Greentree will develop into once his skating improves.
More about puck control, passing, and processing
His puck control goes beyond creating shots for himself, as when Greentree doesn’t have a chance to find twine, he’ll look for someone else who can, and it’s almost like he always knows where he needs to pass the puck. Greentree also has that uncanny ability to know when he needs to fire a hard pass or a simple touch pass, further putting him in sync with teammates.
Few prospects are also as gifted to consistently draw in opponents, but once again, we’re going back to the way he handles the puck. He’s going to wait until the absolute last fraction of a second before finding an open teammate and letting them do the rest. And if he doesn’t draw an opponent in, he’ll just take the shot, something you see in the video powered by NHL Draft Pros below.
Knowing where to go with the puck, whether to fire the shot or to pass to an open teammate, and knowing how much he needs to put onto the pass is a testament to how well Greentree knows the game already. If he processes it at the next level to the same degree he has in the OHL, he’s taking the AHL by storm one day.
It’s even more impressive when he sees a lane and calls his own number, skating toward the net and deking out opponents in the process. For a prospect slated to go in the middle of the first round, his jaw-dropping moves would make you think someone could “reach” for him earlier in the draft.
If you can point to any real negative here, and it’s common among high-skill prospects, he can get caught trying to do too much. Greentree doesn’t need to go into superhero mode when there’s nobody open to pass the puck to, but as his ability to create space improves, this flaw in his game should alleviate somewhat.
Does Greentree have any other real drawbacks other than average skating?
If there’s one more inconsistency to Liam Greentree’s game, or better yet, a part that needs to improve before he’s pro-ready, it’s his compete level. Other prospects slated to go between 10th and 15th in the NHL Draft, like Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, for example, is someone you can never count out during a sequence, whether or not his team has the puck.
This isn’t the case with Greentree, as sometimes he’s got the will to chase down opponents, but there are other times when he looks like he’s relying on others to do the work. For a player his size, the compete and physical play needs to be there 100 percent of the time he skates onto the ice.
This becomes even more important when he’s engaged in puck battles, which, once again, the overall sense of urgency seems to lack. If he realizes the higher the compete, the more eventual scoring chances, Greentree will engage in more puck battles and work to regain possession for himself and his teammates, but it’s not there just yet.
Greentree also gets caught puck watching at times, and when opponents take advantage, it doesn’t end well for him or the Spitfires. So while his awareness is fine for the most part when he and the Spitfires have the puck, it’s a different story when they aren’t in possession, so that aspect of his game must get more consistent in 2024-25.
How intriguing is Greentree’s play on the ice?
If my observations and the video from NHL Draft Pros linked earlier serve as any indication, Greentree is more than intriguing. Like all prospects slated to go outside the top five, his game holds more than a few flaws, but they’re minor.
Suppose Greentree played for even a halfway decent team last season, and there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have forced so many plays. If he gets stronger, that, in turn, will take care of his skating, and he’ll be more comfortable getting physical with opponents both in open ice and along the boards.
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(Statistics powered by Elite Prospects)