Who Is Liam Greentree? Rangers Acquire Top Prospect In Artemi Panarin Trade
Who Is Liam Greentree? Rangers Acquire Top Prospect In Artemi Panarin Trade
Liam Greentree was a key piece of the return for the New York Rangers, who traded star Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings.
In one of the most anticipated deals leading into the NHL’s forthcoming Olympic roster freeze, the New York Rangers traded star winger Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings. Going the other way in the deal is Liam Greentree, the Kings’ top prospect, and a conditional third-round pick according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, who first reported the deal.
Because Panarin had a no-movement clause, he was able to engineer exactly where he wanted to go, which potentially limited the overall return to just two assets, but the assets are interesting nonetheless. Greentree is clearly the centerpiece of the return as a first-round pick and major producer at the junior level.
Here is more on the Rangers' new prospect.
Who Is Liam Greentree?
Liam Greentree is a 6-foot-3, 216-pound right winger for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. He was selected 26th overall during the 2024 NHL Draft by the Kings and has only accelerated from there.
Going back to the start of the 2024-25 OHL season, no player has more points than Greentree’s 164 points in the league. He also leads all players over the last season and a half in goals with 72 in 98 games.
A native of Oshawa, Ontario, Greentree is Windsor’s captain and won the OHL’s Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy last season.
His accolades don’t stop there. Greentree was a all-rookie team selection in 2022-23, third-team all-star in 2023-24, first-team all-star in 2024-25 and a CHL third-team all-star that same season. He’s represented Canada at the U18 World Championship, where he won gold in 2024 and was part of Canada’s World Junior team that won bronze this past winter.
At 20 years old, he should be ready to challenge for a NHL roster spot in training camp next fall.
Among Greentree’s strengths are his spectacular offensive sense. He has a legitimate goal-scorer’s mentality and can put pucks in the net in a variety of ways. At his size, he has very good hands and can make defenders miss, while finding ways to exploit the openings they give him. He has a killer release to score from distance, but also has that ability to get inside and make plays.
Greentree’s skating and compete have been areas he needs to work on some more before being able to make a consistent impact as a professional. He can disappear from games a little too frequently for a player of his size and quality.
As the game gets tougher as a professional, he’ll have to find more ways to engage physically and work harder to get to the inside and win more battles in the hard areas. There is some clear physicality to his game and when he gets a little angry, he can be a feared physical player. He has shown glimpses of being capable of doing all of that, but just needs to do so more consistently. Those are the skills that are theoretically easier to teach and to bring out of a player.
The things that are a lot harder to teach are the things he can really excel in. Greentree is one of those unique big players with high-end skill and offensive sense that should find a way to be a productive top-six forward at the NHL level. He has potential to be a legitimate scorer at the NHL level.
I think he’ll be given every opportunity to make the Rangers out of camp next season, but a little extra time getting used to the pro grind in the AHL with Hartford may be better overall. There will be a lot of attention on him based on being a key piece of the return for a star player, but he's also a prospect that is going to require more patience.
At the most recent World Juniors, Greentree saw his ice time dip over the course of the tournament as his role diminished over time. It was a reminder that he's still not quite a finished product here and there will be more value to be mined out of his game as he becomes a professional.
Greentree fits in nicely with some of the young forwards the Rangers have in their system including Gabe Perreault, who is a similarly gifted offensive talent.
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