One forward is American and new to juniors after leaving his home in Massachusetts to take the next step in his development. The other is Canadian and a seasoned veteran in the United States Hockey League, playing in his third season. Both have become teammates and friends but eventually will find themselves on opposing sides in the Hockey East.
Cam Lund and Ryan Greene both came out as B-rated skaters on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary watch list, released in late October. The 'B' designation means that the NHL’s own scouting service sees the potential for them to land in the second round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, set for July 7-8 in Montreal, the first live draft event since 2019.
Greene and Lund currently are playing in the USHL for the Green Bay Gamblers and bring different styles and attributes to the mix.
“Lund is an offensively gifted player who can be dangerous as either a passer or a shooter,” Green Bay assistant coach Blake Hietala said. His skating is very smooth and effortless and allows him to be a threat on the rush or create separation in the offensive zone. We are very excited about his development so far, and his upside.”
The Bridgewater native, who played at Cushing Academy during the 2019-20 prep hockey season as a 15-year-old, made an immediate impact at that level by scoring at a near point-per-game clip. Even if Lund couldn’t play a full prep schedule in 2020-21 because of the pandemic’s impact on Massachusetts hockey, he skated in the NCDC for the Junior Bruins. It was his first taste of juniors, scoring an impressive 17 goals and 34 points as a rookie in that league. That experience, plus a weekend call-up to Green Bay to get a couple of USHL games under his belt, set the stage for this critical year for him.
In 11 games, Lund has two goals and three points but is getting comfortable and starting to confidently shoot the puck more, tallying in consecutive games in early November.
“I’m an offensive guy who knows how to make plays and has a good skating ability,” he told New England Hockey Journal. “The coaches have been awesome and have given me a lot of helpful advice on what to do better and how to do something. If I ever need to talk to them, they are always there for me, and they’re trying to develop everyone on the team to get to the next level.”
Greene, who hails from Newfoundland, has six assists in his team’s first 10 games as a two-way, playmaking center. Although Canadian, he has strong ties to the New England region. Greene was the third overall selection in the 2019 USHL futures draft after a dominant season with the South Kent Selects 15-only squad, putting up 31 goals and 81 points in 50 games. He parlayed that outstanding season into a commitment to Boston University at age 15 in April 2019. He was in the middle of 2019-20 with the Selects Academy 16 team when Green Bay made the decision to offer him a spot on its team at midseason, and he opted to finish out the year in the USHL.
“When I first came to the league in January of 2019 it was a big jump going from playing Tier 1 hockey, triple-A in the states to (the USHL),” Greene said recently. “I had to make decisions so much quicker and obviously, guys were a lot stronger and faster. It took a little while for me to get used to that, but last year, I came in with a different mindset. … I got put out in a lot of different situations and thought I did a pretty good job. It’s been two-and-a-half years now and as the games go by, you get more used to it, especially now. I feel the best I ever have, and so hopefully we make the playoffs and I have a good year myself. I’m just trying to stay focused and take each game as they come.”
Both players bring contrasting styles to the Green Bay roster, much like the difference in their experience levels in the league.
Lund is more of a power forward who can control the tempo and flow of a game when he is skating hard and backing up defenses with his speed or driving through contact. He’s effective on the cycle, able to pick pucks cleanly off the walls or shield the puck from defenders to create time and space for himself and others. He’s a first-round talent but is still adjusting to the pace and physicality of the league while learning how to be more consistent in his approach and the application of his impressive natural talent.
His strong performance at the USA Hockey Select-17 player development camp in July secured Lund a spot on the USA squad for the 2021 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, and he had a four-goal game against Germany. Overall, the Americans underachieved and had a disappointing finish at the annual event that normally serves as a who’s who for the next NHL draft, but Lund demonstrated what he’s capable of doing when on top of his game.
“He’s a gifted athlete,” a Western Conference NHL scout said of Lund. “He’s big, fast and skilled. He can score. The sky is the limit for him as he learns to adjust his own game to the higher levels of compete needed to score consistently at this level and the next.”
Greene always had the hockey IQ and offensive skills to score as a younger player. Playing a year up for the TriCom Thunder 15 team in Newfoundland, he scored 40 goals and 60 points in 38 games the season before he went down to Connecticut. Being a late 2003-born player means he’s had extra time to develop, missing the 2021 NHL draft cutoff age by a month. Where the 6-foot-1, 172-pound forward might not have been far enough along to be an earlier selection last summer, his progression and upside, plus NCAA pedigree, means he’s solidly on track to be a top-100 selection in Montreal. It’s a long season, and Greene is still looking for his first goal of 2021-22, but so far, so good.
“After having a great summer getting stronger, he has really taken steps in making his game more complete this year as one of our best faceoff guys,” Hietala said of Greene. “He’s very responsible defensively, which has led us to rely on him in all situations.”
Greene’s own view of the type of player he is dovetails nicely with his coach’s assessment. “I see myself as a 200-foot player,” he said. “I’m a center, so I like to play on both sides of the puck. I think my best assets are my skating, vision and puckhandling. I think my offensive instincts help me a lot.”
Greene’s development and experience puts him ahead of Lund as it pertains to where their respective games are at this stage, with the move to the USHL constituting a big jump for the rookie.
“More speed is the biggest thing,” Lund said of the adjustment to the top junior league in the country. “Everyone is bigger, faster, everyone is stronger, so you need to have a lot of muscle and skill to play in the league as you go on, so having that will help you along the way.”
The pair have become good friends in Green Bay, supporting one another. Although they are about the same age, Greene is the veteran who came several thousand miles from his home in Paradise, Newfoundland, to play juniors in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. At some point, they will become college rivals, with Lund headed to Matthews Arena as a Northeastern recruit, while Greene will don the scarlet and white for the Boston University Terriers.
“I love him,” Greene said of his relationship with Lund. ‘I remember last year at camp, he went back to Cushing, but we played together in the two All-Star games. I’ve gotten very close with him this year and we hang out in our groups. He’s a great guy on and off the ice. I just love playing with him — he’s a really good teammate.”
So, until they end up in college hockey on opposite sides, the two will continue to work in concert to generate more offense for a talented Gamblers team that is hovering around .500 with plenty of time to go on a run in the ever-competitive USHL. Helping their team win more games is the focus for both forwards, but the chance to take that next step to fulfilling their objectives in the sport is an exciting opportunity.
“I think every kid’s dream who plays hockey, to talk to an NHL team and have a chance to one day play in the NHL, is crazy,” said Lund. “I’ve wanted to play in the NHL since I first started playing as a little kid, so just getting the opportunity to talk to teams is exciting.”
Cam Lund scouting report
Physical attributes: Excellent size; big frame with room to add mass/strength as he fills out and continues his physical maturation process.
Skills assessment: Very good skater with quick initial first steps and good east-west agility. Nimble for one so tall, he can separate from defenders in open ice or put them on their heels when he’s moving in straight lines. Deft passer with a hard shot; needs to shoot the puck more.
Intangibles: Sees the ice and has above-average offensive instincts and anticipation. Doesn’t always play at high pace or dominate shifts like he’s capable of; goes stretches where he isn’t as engaged physically or mentally from shift to shift.
Overall assessment: Although still raw, there is significant upside at the right point in the draft. He’s starting to shoot the puck more, and seeing results. The onus is on Lund to continue contributing over all 200 feet of the ice surface, because when moving his feet and competing hard, there aren’t many better draft-eligible forwards in the entire USHL. He’s a good bet to be a second- or third-round pick, but with more consistency and production, he has the talent to land at the end of the first round.
New England 2022 NHL Draft top 5
1. Jack Hughes, C, Northeastern University, HEA, Westwood, Mass.; Nov. 2, 2003, left shot, 6-0, 165
The top first-year draft-eligible in the region as a late ’03 has had a positive early impact for the Huskies with his intelligence, compete and skills. The center shows chemistry playing on a line with older brother Riley Hughes (New York Rangers prospect)
2. Cam Lund, C, Green Bay, USHL, Bridgewater, Mass.; June 7, 2004, right shot, 6-2, 185
(see scouting report)
3. Ryan Healey, D, Sioux Falls, USHL, Hull, Mass.; May 19, 2004, right shot, 6-0, 178
The two-way defender was injured to start the USHL season and didn’t play at the league’s annual showcase event in Pittsburgh but made Central’s watch list as a C-skater. He’s on a struggling team, so it will be interesting to see if the Harvard recruit can help the Stampede climb their way up in the Western Conference standings.
4. Jackson Dorrington, D, Des Moines, USHL, North Reading, Mass.; April 13, 2004, left shot, 6-2, 192
Another Northeastern-committed player, the former Cushing Academy standout (who like Lund played with the Junior Bruins last season) is getting more comfortable in the USHL as a mobile defender who can move pucks north and has the size to be an effective pro one day.
5. Bennett MacDonald, C, Nobles/EC Wizards, Weston, Mass.; Feb. 24, 2004, left shot, 5-11, 172
Followed up strong summer hockey play with an even more impressive fall performance. He’s skilled, but the vision/hockey sense and highly competitive drive he brings to every shift have landed him squarely on NHL radars with prep hockey right around the corner.
This article appears in the November/December print edition of New England Hockey Journal.
