Cornell’s Green signs with Stanley Cup finalist

Considering the impact COVID-19 has had on the college sports world and the uncertainty that surrounds the upcoming seasons, it’s understandable that some athletes are electing to jump to the pros early. That’s what Cornell University men’s hockey defenseman Alex Green did when he signed a two-year, entry-level deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, forgoing his senior season in the process.

Currently, the Lightning is locked in a series with the Dallas Stars to see who will win the Stanley Cup. In contrast, the Hockey Commissioners Association recently made the decision to postpone all NCAA Division I hockey competition with no start date announced. From that perspective, Green’s decision to leave Cornell a season early is understandable.

“Obviously, with the pandemic and everything, every season is kind of up in the air still with regards to the upcoming season,” Green said. “Really, the main driving factor was I loaded up on summer classes and I have my credits lined up now so I can graduate in December. This decision kind of killed two birds with one stone. I can graduate from

Cornell in December, similar to Morgan Barron, and then I can also play pro hockey.”
Green, who is originally from Chicago, joins the aforementioned Barron as the two Cornell players to forgo their senior season this year thus far. They were both instrumental to the success of the No. 1 team in the nation last year, with Barron being a national Hobey Baker Award finalist and Green being named the ECAC’s Best Defensive Defenseman.

This will be a huge jump for Green, who plans on graduating from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations while getting his pro career started. He’s intended to sign with the Lightning since the summer.

“When coach [Mike] Schafer told us that the season was going to get pushed back until January, I started to talk to my academic advisers and devise a plan on how I could load up on classes so I would be able to graduate in December,” Green said. “That happened in July. Then, my agent was in talks with the Lightning and Lightning management, and it took a couple weeks to finalize the deal, and I’m happy that we got it done.”

Green was a fourth-round draft pick by the Lightning in 2018. Since then, Tampa Bay had the best record in the NHL in the 2018-19 season and now are only a few games away from winning the Stanley Cup. With that in mind, Green knows he’ll be joining one of the best-run franchises in hockey.

“[Lightning is] a first-class organization,” Green said. “You look at their track record and they’re unbelievable at developing late-round draft picks into NHL regulars. … It just seemed like a good fit. They have a lot of defensemen that are going to be unrestricted free agents next year, so I like the opportunity.”

Green’s point holds true, as half of the team’s current roster was drafted in the third round or later or just not drafted at all. If the COVID-19 pandemic did not persist, Green believes he might not have joined that roster and instead would return to Cornell to take care of unfinished business along with Barron.

“Under normal circumstances, and if there wasn’t a pandemic going on, maybe there’s a chance that Morgan was going to go back and fulfill a senior year, and I was definitely in the same boat,” Green said. “This is an unprecedented time right now. It definitely threw a wrench in our original plans and it kind of forced us to look at other options.”

It was certainly not easy to make the decision to no longer play at Cornell, especially since the team was primed to make a run at the national championship earlier and ended the year ranked No. 1 in the nation.

“I thought our team was peaking at the right time,” Green said. “Everyone was healthy. Morgan Baron was an absolute beast all season. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to contend for a national championship this year, and it was really unfortunate the way that it ended. It was a blast of a season. That team was so close-knit. We’re going to remember it for the rest of our lives.”

Currently, Green is on Cornell’s campus to finish his degree and has been participating in captain’s practices with the Big Red. Fortunately for him, the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate, is a short drive away, so he’s been traveling there for workouts with the team trainer.

After the unsatisfying end to his Cornell tenure, in which a promising postseason was canceled due to COVID-19, Green took matters into his own hands and signed his first NHL contract. He’ll be joining the Lightning for training camp in November.