A.J. Greer’s offensive breakout keeps rolling, and the former Colorado Avalanche forward added another two-goal night Tuesday even though it wasn’t enough to lift his team past the Vancouver Canucks in a 6-5 overtime loss.
It’s a far cry from what Avalanche fans saw during his three seasons in Denver. Greer managed just one goal and five assists with Colorado, spending most of that time as a physical depth forward rather than a scoring threat.
Since leaving the Avalanche, though, the production has started to catch up with the rest of his game. Greer has gone from the New Jersey Devils to the Boston Bruins to the Calgary Flames before landing with the Florida Panthers, where he joined during the second half of their back-to-back Stanley Cup run and was part of the 2025 title team.
The real turn came the next season. Greer posted 17 goals and 15 assists in 78 games for Florida, finishing with 32 points and blowing past anything he had done earlier in his NHL career. For a player who had totaled just six points in three seasons with Colorado, that was a massive leap.
Florida responded with a four-year, $17 million contract, and Greer is backing it up. Tuesday’s performance gave him another multi-goal game, and it was the latest sign that his scoring surge is sticking.
He has now had four multi-goal games in the NHL. The first came on October 15, 2022, when he was with Boston and put up three points in a 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes. He then did it twice more during the 2025-26 season with Florida, getting three points in an 8-3 win over Nashville on November 24 and repeating the feat in a 4-3 win over Buffalo in January.
Greer has always brought the physical edge. Now, he’s pairing that with real offensive punch - and Tuesday was just the latest reminder of how much his game has grown.
In Other News...
Avalanche May Be Heading Toward A Brent Burns Decision
Brent Burns has settled into a third-pairing role for the Avalanche, but the fit has not looked especially smooth. His recent game showed a negative Wins Above Replacement rating, and the underlying numbers have not helped his case either, with a negative relative expected goals for mark adding to the concern around his impact at even strength.
Still, Colorado does not appear eager to take him out of the lineup, and the reason is bigger than one rough night or even a short stretch of limited ice time. Burns Ironman streak remains a factor the Avalanche have to weigh as they try to sort out their blue-line rotation and manage fatigue, leaving the team with a delicate balancing act every time it sets its pairings. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Forward Shakeup After Ugly Loss Raises A Bigger Lineup Question
After an ugly loss, the Avalanche wasted little time changing up their forward group, and the most notable shift came with Nazem Kadri sliding down to third-line center while Fedor Svechkov was bumped to the fourth line. The move gave Colorado a different look in the middle of the lineup, while Nic Roy also returned to practice and appeared on track to be available for the next game after dealing with an upper-body injury. Roy said he is healthy and was a full participant, which at least gives Jared Bednar another option as he searches for a better blend up front.
The reshuffle speaks to a bigger question the Avalanche have been circling for a while: how to find the right combination through the middle without sacrificing balance elsewhere. Bednar has been willing to tinker after rough nights, and this one felt like a clear sign that nothing is being treated as fixed. With Roy back in the mix and Kadri moved to a different role, Colorado now has to see whether the new alignment can steady a group that needs a cleaner answer soon. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Suddenly Have A Parker Kelly Problem To Watch
Parker Kelly was one of the more useful surprises in Colorados depth mix last season, when his 21-goal breakout gave the Avalanche an unexpected scoring boost and raised the bar for what he might bring in a full follow-up year. Through 12 games this season, though, the production has been far quieter, with one goal and five points leaving the Avalanche to wonder whether last year was the start of a new level or a peak that may be hard to revisit.
For a team that leans on depth scoring to make the rest of its attack work, Kellys line becomes a small but important watch point. If his output settles back closer to the level he had shown earlier in his career, Colorado loses a layer of offense it was hoping to count on, and that puts a little more pressure on the rest of the supporting cast to pick up the slack. [Read more 🡒]