Greiss (and Bernier) rank far down the list of The Athletic’s ‘Goalie Tiers’

The Athletic’s Craig Custance employed an anonymous panel of GM’s, head coaches and goalie coaches to rank the NHL’s starting goaltenders from 1 to 31, and they 1) chose Red Wings goaltender Thomas Greiss as the team’s starter and 2) ranked Greiss far down the list:

27 (tie). Thomas Greiss, Red Wings

Average 2021 tier rating: 3.37

Greiss is going from a very structured, strong defensive team in the Islanders to, well, one that is not. This spot very could be Jonathan Bernier, who was actually pretty good last season in a tough situation. The Red Wings seemed to realize that Bernier does well with a heavy workload, and it’s possible he plays more than Greiss, who has had success as a spot starter. But Greiss got the offseason contract after a solid five seasons with the Islanders. The question is: Can he do that in Detroit?

“I like Greiss a lot. I think he’s underrated. We’ll see how he does now,” said one panelist.

Added a head coach: “Greiss is better than a lot of the goalies on this list.”

This seemed to be a fair summation of the goalie situation in Detroit: “(Greiss is) a good quality backup goalie. I don’t think he’s a No. 1 guy. I don’t see him doing any better than Jonathan Bernier. They’re comparable goalies.”

Continued (paywall)

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.