ITHACA, N.Y. – After a solid collegiate debut as a major contributor on the nation’s top defensive team, Cornell sophomore defenseman Alex Green was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.
“It’s great for Alex and his family,” said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey at Cornell. “I’m sure that he will work extremely hard to prove Tampa Bay right and that he will be deserving of an NHL contract down the road.”
Green was immediately installed onto one of the Big Red’s top two defensive pairings last season, most often alongside two-time All-Ivy League selection Yanni Kaldis. Despite the early thrust into pivotal moments of games in all situations (power play, even strength and short-handed), Green thrived en route to two goals and eight assists for 10 points over 29 games and a plus-9 rating.
Both of his goals came in crunch time of close games. The first came during Cornell’s four-goal burst in the third period of a 5-4 win over Niagara on Nov. 21, and the second proved to be the Big Red’s final goal in a rally for a 3-3 tie Jan. 12 at Yale.
“We knew that with the interest he was generating through the course of the year, he’d be drafted somewhere,” Schafer said. “It says a lot about Alex, because he worked extremely hard to develop his game after being passed over by teams in last year’s draft.”
Having turned 20 earlier this week, Green became the first Cornell player to be drafted after his collegiate debut since John McCarron ’15 and Joakim Ryan ’15 – the latter of which just turned in a very successful NHL rookie season with the San Jose Sharks.
Green becomes the 74th player to appear for Cornell to be selected in the NHL draft. With the upcoming addition of freshman Misha Song – a New York Islanders pick in 2015 – the Big Red has been represented in each of the eight NHL drafts with a total of 14 players selected over that stretch.
