In this edition of the hotstove we…‹ …‹share our thoughts on Thomas Greiss' three-year, $10 million contract extension with the New York Islanders.
Todd Cordell
I think this is a great contract for the Islanders. It allows them to stabilize their goaltending without committing too much in term or dollars.
Greiss owns a career .919 save percentage, an above average total, and has posted a .920SV% or better in three of the last four seasons. He has never taken on a massive workload, but his numbers have been consistently good over a decent sample size.
Greiss is top-5 in 5v5 save percentage over the last few seasons, too, so there's reason to believe he is not just a flash in the pan.
I think this is a smart investment for the Islanders and it allows them extra dollars to allocate elsewhere to improve their roster. Having a starter for $3.3 million is a big advantage in today's cap world.
Adam French I honestly really like this deal. Mainly because I feel that Greiss has earned himself an extended stay somewhere. Greiss has taken the number one role for the Isles away from Halak and has proven he is the best of the three-headed dragon. It doesn't help that the other two heads have been terrible...but he reaps the rewards for his play. He isn't paid as a starter, but can play 40ish games of quality goaltending. Which is great. They know he's a 1B guy and most importantly, they are paying him to be one.
The Islanders have two very good goalie prospects in Ilya Sorokin and Linus Söderström, but they are still a few years at least from making an NHL impact (if at all).
Sorokin (21) was the KHL's best goalie last season helping Moskva to the finals where they fell short of the Gagarin Cup. This year he has been amazing again, though in an ironic twist will likely lose out on the Goaltender of the Year Trophy to the Rangers 21 year old prospect Igor Shestyorkin.
Söderström (20) was the WJC's Best Goaltender last year and this season has split starts for HV71 in the Elitserien and has been fantastic.
They need to find a goalie to play 40 games along with Greiss in the coming seasons for this to be a slam dunk in my opinion. Whether that is Berube, Sorokin, Söderström, Gibson, Halak (lol) or more likely a goalie through the expansion remains to be seen and will dictate a lot of the potential success or failure of this move.
So I like it...is what I'm saying...I guess.
James Tanner
Considering how he's played, this is a great deal for the team. A starting goalie for that price is an incredible value. If you can get cheap goaltending in a cap system, it's a huge advantage, so if he can keep the starting job it's a pretty amazing contract for the Islanders.
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