Update 6:38pm: Newsday Sports’ Arther Staple reports that the deal is a three-year contract worth $10MM.
The New York Islanders signed goaltender Thomas Greiss to a three-year contract extension today. Islanders beat writer Arthur Staple of Newsday Sports first reported the deal on Twitter. The Islanders have not released any contractual details besides term as of yet.
Greiss was on the final year of his two-year, $1.5MM a year contract. Mired in a goaltender controversy caused by the Islanders holding three goaltenders at the NHL level, Greiss is currently posting a career best .928 SV% and a 2.28 GAA in 25 games. With Jaroslav Halak in the AHL, Greiss looks to be the Islanders’ starting goaltender going forward. Greiss’s numbers dwarf both Halak’s and prospect-goalie Jean-Francois Berube’s.
The extension, however, does not solve the Islanders goaltending conundrum. Halak has another year left on his contract worth $4.5MM a year, and Berube is an RFA after this season. The organization will have to figure out what to do with Halak before the club maintains goaltending stability.
The signing comes as a welcome reprieve to the organization after word leaked today that the Barclays Center—where the Islanders play—may not house the hockey team after 2018-19. Either party may terminate the lease, and it seems that the Barclays Center wants to proceed without the New York Islanders as tenants going forward.
Soooo…. Islanders back to Long Island? Or are they going to have to consider relocation?
Nobody knows. This could even be public negotiation by Barclays to get a better deal from NYI. Right now Barclays pays NYI a lump sum of $53.5MM to take over all arena revenue, but with attendence bottoming out, that deal isn’t as lucrative as Barclays once thought.
I can’t wait for the Kansas City islanders