After a strong 2019 campaign with the New York Islanders, Thomas Greiss was again solid in net for Barry Trotz’s team.
Thomas Greiss entered the 2019-2020 season with high expectations. In 2019, he was excellent for Barry Trotz’s Islanders team finishing with a .927 save percentage and a 2.28 goals against average.
Could he repeat that going into a contract year? In the first two months of the year, Greiss was downright great. Between October and November, he finished 10-2 with a .932 save percentage and a 2.11 goals against average.
Unfortunately from there, his regular-season got inconsistent. In December his save percentage dipped to .894. He’d bounce back with a .945 save percentage month in January before finishing with a .864 and .850 in February and March.
On the season, Greiss finished with a .913 save percentage and a 2.74 goals against average. At five on five, Greiss ranked 22nd out of qualified goalies with a .922 save percentage.
Greiss was also solid against high danger chances according to Natural Stat Trick. He ranked 15th in the league with a .841 save percentage.
In the return to play, Greiss assumed the backup role for the Islanders which was expected. He ended up starting three games and he appeared in a fourth as well finishing 2-2 with a .929 save percentage and a 2.02 goals against average.
Those numbers are actually a little inflated. In his first three games, he had a .966 save percentage with just three goals allowed. Unfortunately in Game 1 against Tampa, the wheels fell off as he allowed three goals on nine shots.
Greiss was a reliable 1B for the Islanders this year, which is exactly what he was for the majority of his Islanders tenure. For the 2019-2020 season, I give Greiss a B grade.
He was more reliable than not, and now he’s expected to hit the market and should get a chance to cash in somewhere else. The Islanders will more than likely roll with Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin in 2020-2021 so it looks like Greisser’s time on the Island is done.
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Greiss will go down as a solid Islander who was likely underappreciated during his time with the team. Best of luck in 2020 and beyond, Greiss.