5. Thomas Greiss
Whoever comes to Calgary to play goal next season, they are going to play a platoon type role with David Rittich. No matter who the Flames decide to be the other goaltender, they aren’t going to play 65 games, and they aren’t going to sit on the bench and watch Rittich play 60 either.
Greiss has been playing a platoon role with the New York Islanders for years. Whether he was splitting starts with Jaroslav Halak or Semyon Varlamov, the German netminder was playing between 27 and 51 games per season. The year he played 27 games, he spent six weeks on injured reserve.
In other words, he is perfectly suited to take on the role the Flames are offering. This season, Greiss played 31 regular season games for the Isles, posting a 2.74 GAA and a .913 SV%. He started four games in the postseason and was fantastic, putting up a 2.02 GAA and a .929 SV%.
A year ago, he was even better, Greiss played 43 games in 2018-19. The team went 23-14-2 with him in net and he had a 2.28 GAA and a .927 SV%. The 34 year old has been great the past two seasons and is an unrestricted free agent, so the Flames would not have to give anything up in a trade to acquire him.
The problem with Greiss is, the Islanders play a tight defensive style. Would be be able to post those numbers on a team that actually tries to score goals from time to time or has his defence been inflating that save percentage a little bit by limiting quality chances?
Greiss would make a solid tandem with Rittich, but he is 34, there has to be a younger option, right?