Thomas Greiss

Thomas Greiss (born 29 January 1986) is a German professional ice hockey goaltender who currently plays for Löwen Frankfurt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Selected 94th overall in the third round of the 2004 NHL entry draft by the San Jose Sharks, he played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Sharks, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues.

Playing career Greiss is a native of Füssen, Germany. As a youth, he played in the 1999 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a team from Munich. He developed through the youth ranks of EV Füssen before heading to the Kölner Haie organization in 2002. He made his debut in the German top-flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) for the Cologne-based team during the 2003–04 campaign.

The San Jose Sharks selected Greiss in the third round, 94th overall, in the 2004 NHL entry draft. Greiss played for San Jose during the Sharks' preseason games ahead of the 2007–08 season, though he was eventually assigned to the team's then-American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Worcester Sharks. On 8 January 2008, he was recalled to replace German compatriot Dimitri Pätzold as the backup goaltender to Evgeni Nabokov. Greiss started his first career NHL game on 13 January 2008, an eventual 4–3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks. For the 2009–10 season, he served as the back-up goaltender to starter Nabokov.

On 12 October 2010, just prior to the commencement of the 2010–11 season, Greiss was put on waivers by San Jose, eventually clearing and reporting to Worcester of the AHL. Greiss' demotion was in large part due to the off-season signings of Finnish goaltenders Antero Niittymäki and Antti Niemi. Nine days later, after failing to see any gameplay as Worcester's third-string goaltender, he was reassigned to Brynäs IF in the Swedish Elitserien to provide him regular playing time. In April 2011, Greiss was recalled from Brynäs to San Jose for the team's run in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. He later re-signed with the Sharks on 7 July.

For the Sharks' 2011–12 season opener, Greiss was the team's starter in a 6–3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in San Jose. He went on to start the next two games—losses to the Anaheim Ducks and St. Louis Blues—before Antti Niemi returned from off-season surgery. Later in the season, Greiss recorded his first career NHL shutout on 26 January 2013, recording 24 saves in a 4–0 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

Greiss became a free agent in July 2013 and subsequently signed a one-year contract with the Phoenix Coyotes. In his only season with Phoenix, he played in 25 games, posting a 2.25 goals against average (GAA) and .920 save percentage. At the end of the 2013–14 season, he was not re-signed by the Coyotes, whereupon he signed a one-year, $1 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins on 1 July 2014. After the 2014–15 season in which he appeared in 20 games for the Penguins, Greiss once again switched teams as a free agent, signing with the New York Islanders on a two-year, $3 million contract on 1 July 2015. In March 2016, Jaroslav Halák, the Islanders' starting goaltender, suffered a lower-body injury sidelining him six weeks, leaving Greiss as the team's temporary starter.

In December 2016, the Islanders waived Halák, leaving Greiss and Jean-François Bérubé as the Islanders' two goaltenders. On 30 January 2017, Greiss signed a three-year contract extension with the Islanders. On 15 January 2018, Greiss made a career-high 52 saves in a 5–4 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens.

On 10 October 2020, Greiss signed a two-year, $7.2 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Greiss was named the NHL First Star of the Week for the week ending 3 May 2021. He stopped all 66 shots he faced across 130:00 of regulation and overtime. It marked the third time that Greiss had posted consecutive shutouts during his NHL career, and the first time a Detroit goaltender has accomplished the feat since Petr Mrázek did so in January 2018.

On 13 July 2022, Greiss signed as a free agent to a one-year, $1.25 million contract with the St. Louis Blues. Featuring in his 14th NHL season in 2022–23, Greiss served as the Blues backup goaltender to Jordan Binnington, and posted seven wins through 21 appearances, as the Blues missed the postseason.

On 12 July 2023, as a free agent from the Blues and despite contract offers, Greiss announced his retirement from the NHL and his professional ice hockey career.

On September 25, 2024, Greiss announced his return to ice hockey by signing a short-term contract with Löwen Frankfurt, following the injuries of Juho Olkinuora and Cody Brenner.

International play In 2006, Greiss earned a roster spot on the German team for the 2006 Winter Olympics; at just 20 years of age, he was the youngest goaltender in the tournament. During the tournament, Greiss notably recorded an impressive 35-save performance against Canada.

Greiss was again named to the German squad for in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Greiss represented Germany at the 2017 IIHF World Championship. While at the event, he drew controversy for liking posts critical of Hillary Clinton on Twitter, including one comparing Clinton to Adolf Hitler.

In 2021, the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) announced that Greiss would no longer be representing Germany at international events, following Greiss' Instagram posts about the death of controversial conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh.

Personal life Greiss' wife Brittney (née Palmer) was Miss South Dakota USA in 2014. Together, they have a daughter.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP W L T/OT MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV% 2003–04 Kölner Haie DEL 1 0 0 0 20 4 0 12.00 .600 — — — — — — — — 2004–05 Kölner Haie DEL 8 — — — 459 16 0 2.09 .936 — — — — — — — — 2004–05 Eisbären Regensburg 2.GBun 1 — — — 60 2 0 2.00 — — — — — — — — — 2005–06 Kölner Haie DEL 27 — — — 1,560 64 1 2.46 .926 9 6 3 533 27 1 3.03 .898 2006–07 Fresno Falcons ECHL 3 1 2 0 180 7 0 2.34 .929 — — — — — — — — 2006–07 Worcester Sharks AHL 43 26 15 2 2,555 111 0 2.61 .912 3 0 3 172 12 0 4.18 .865 2007–08 Worcester Sharks AHL 41 18 21 2 2,424 125 0 3.09 .892 — — — — — — — — 2007–08 San Jose Sharks NHL 3 0 1 1 129 7 0 3.26 .860 — — — — — — — — 2008–09 Worcester Sharks AHL 57 34 20 2 3,346 138 1 2.47 .910 12 6 6 742 30 2 2.43 .912 2009–10 San Jose Sharks NHL 16 7 4 1 782 35 0 2.68 .912 1 0 0 40 2 0 3.00 .929 2010–11 Brynäs IF SEL 32 — — — 1,850 90 2 2.92 .901 — — — — — — — — 2011–12 San Jose Sharks NHL 19 9 7 1 1,043 40 0 2.30 .915 — — — — — — — — 2012–13 Hannover Scorpions DEL 9 3 6 0 535 31 0 3.47 .905 — — — — — — — — 2012–13 San Jose Sharks NHL 6 1 4 0 308 13 1 2.53 .915 — — — — — — — — 2012–13 Worcester Sharks AHL 1 0 1 0 60 5 0 5.04 .815 — — — — — — — — 2013–14 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 25 10 8 5 1,312 50 2 2.29 .920 — — — — — — — — 2014–15 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 20 9 6 3 1,159 50 0 2.59 .908 — — — — — — — — 2015–16 New York Islanders NHL 41 23 11 4 2,288 90 1 2.36 .925 11 5 6 734 30 0 2.46 .923 2016–17 New York Islanders NHL 51 26 18 5 2,814 126 3 2.69 .913 — — — — — — — — 2017–18 New York Islanders NHL 27 13 8 2 1,492 95 1 3.82 .892 — — — — — — — — 2018–19 New York Islanders NHL 43 23 14 2 2,294 87 5 2.28 .927 1 0 0 36 2 0 3.33 .800 2019–20 New York Islanders NHL 31 16 9 4 1,596 73 0 2.74 .913 4 2 2 178 6 1 2.02 .929 2020–21 Detroit Red Wings NHL 34 8 15 8 1,756 79 2 2.70 .912 — — — — — — — — 2021–22 Detroit Red Wings NHL 31 10 15 1 1,508 92 0 3.66 .891 — — — — — — — — 2022–23 St. Louis Blues NHL 21 7 10 0 1,090 66 1 3.64 .896 — — — — — — — — 2024–25 Löwen Frankfurt DEL 13 4 8 0 619 37 0 3.59 .886 — — — — — — — — NHL totals 368 162 130 37 19,569 903 16 2.77 .911 17 7 8 988 40 1 2.43 .922

International Year Team Event GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV% 2003 Germany WJC18-D1 2 2 0 0 120 2 0 1.00 .955 2004 Germany WJC18-D1 3 2 0 0 140 8 0 3.43 .867 2004 Germany WJC-D1 2 2 0 0 — — — 1.51 .909 2005 Germany WJC 3 0 2 0 104 13 0 7.50 .806 2006 Germany WJC-D1 4 4 0 0 240 2 2 0.50 .978 2006 Germany OLY 1 0 1 0 60 5 0 5.00 .875 2006 Germany WC-D1 2 1 0 0 61 2 0 1.97 .882 2010 Germany OLY 3 0 3 0 179 15 0 5.03 .815 2016 Germany WC 4 3 1 0 240 10 0 2.50 .904 Junior totals 15 10 2 0 — — — — — Senior totals 10 4 5 0 540 32 0 3.56 —

Awards and honours Award YearNHL William M. Jennings Trophy 2019