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The Thomas Greiss Era of Islanders Hockey: A Retrospective

Publish Date: July 17, 2023

A longtime face of the New York Islanders in net announced his retirement on Wednesday. Goaltender Thomas Greiss hung up his pads after 14 seasons of hockey, five of them with the Islanders. In his time with the team, he saw the Barclays Center and second Coliseum eras before the team found its permanent home at UBS Arena.

While this discussion isn’t about the numbers Greiss put up, although they are very solid. With a 101-60-17 record, 2.70 goals against average (GAA) and .915 save percentage, he certainly deserves his flowers for his accomplishments in goal. However, the point is he saw a lot of good and bad moments in Islanders history, along with a wide variety of Islanders teammates.

Barclays Beginnings, First Series Win:

Greiss was part of the team’s inaugural roster in Brooklyn, helping the team to their first playoff series win since 1993 (Photo courtesy of NHL.com)

His first marquee moment was helping to put the Islanders in the Second Round of the NHL playoffs for the first time since 1993. With their opening round victory over the Florida Panthers in 2016, it marked the end of the longest playoff series win drought at the time. While John Tavares, now captain of the Maple Leafs, carried the Islanders to the victory, posting five goals and eight points, Greiss was just as instrumental with several key saves, including a penalty shot save in Game 5’s overtime.

Joining him on that roster are several alumni outside of the organization. The likes of Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo left that summer in free agency, Okposo to Buffalo and Nielsen to the Red Wings. Nielsen has since retired while Okposo holds the captaincy for the Sabres. Various key defensemen from that roster have also gone their separate ways, including Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic to the Blues and Senators respectively. However, that offseason was the first of many mass turnover offseasons for the Islanders following his arrival.

Later Barclays Years, Return to the Coliseum:

In the years after that series win, the years were struggles for the Islanders. They missed the playoffs by one point in 2017 while the following year boasted one of the worst defenses in hockey. The years were up and down for Greiss: his 2017 saw him maintain form but 2018 saw regression due to the porous defense. However, along with these struggles came roster turnover.

The likes of Halak, Nikolai Kulemin and Ryan Strome each made their exits during this timeframe, either due to trades or free agency, as well as several short-term faces. Jason Chimera and Dennis Seidenberg, both short-term pieces from that era of Islanders hockey, came and left following 2018. Alan Quine, one of 2016’s playoff heroes, also left the organization in 2018 in free agency. Of all these names, only Strome is active in the NHL at the moment with the Anaheim Ducks, the others have either retired or are playing internationally. Defenseman Calvin De Haan is also active in the NHL today, but he is nowadays with the Tampa Bay Lightning. As a result, various names of the late Barclays-era are joining Thomas Greiss’ status as Islanders alumni.

Coliseum Years, Playoff Runs:

One of Greiss’ latest teammates with the Islanders was Semyon Varlamov, maintaining the team’s status of having a strong goalie rotation (Photo courtesy of NHL.com)

In the years after the Islanders returned to the Coliseum for the years prior to UBS Arena’s opening, the Islanders emerged as a contender. The team made the playoffs two straight years from 2019-20, and Greiss formed dynamic tandems with Robin Lehner and Semyon Varlamov. While goaltending was a key reason for their success, along with them came several heroes. Some of these names were one year faces, such as Valtteri Filppula and Derrick Brassard in 2019-19 and ’19-20 respectively.

While the likes of Mat Barzal, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and fellow goalie Semyon Varlamov remain, several other pieces from these teams have since left. The most notable of these names is Jordan Eberle, who was a key top six contributor. That same offseason, when Greiss left for the Red Wings following Ilya Sorokin’s arrival, defenseman Devon Toews also left due to the team’s salary cap issues. Johnny Boychuk, another longtime name on the blue line, also was forced to hang up the skates due to an eye injury. While most of the core is in tact, depth gets teams far in the playoffs, as Greiss’ teammates in this era are proof of that.

Conclusion:

The reason for this discussion isn’t necessarily a look back on Greiss’ performance. Statistically he is one of their top goalies in the post-dyanasty era, sitting top 10 in wins and shutouts. However, what this piece does show is Greiss’ unwavering loyalty to the team. He stuck with the team for five tumultuous years, seeing the highs of deep playoff runs and lows of bad teams at Barclays Center. In fact, other longtime teammates of his have left the Islanders recently, including Josh Bailey, Jordan Eberle, Nick Leddy and Leo Komarov.

While Thomas Greiss will be remembered for his key performances in big spots, one of the other parts to his Islanders’ career was his loyalty. Through all the different players, coaches and arenas, he didn’t complain and remained a key cog to the Islanders’ resurgence.

Stay tuned for more breaking NHL content, including offseason moves, contract updates and more news from every team.

Featured image courtesy of NHL.com

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