When the Chicago Blackhawks tweeted out a flower emoji this morning, it could only mean one thing. Marc-Andre Fleury has decided he will report for the Blackhawks and play out the finals season of his contract in Chicago, according to several reports including Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.
Fleury was acquired by the Blackhawks last month, and because of his stated desire to play the rest of his career in Vegas (and his obvious connection to the Golden Knights franchise), reports immediately surfaced that he may not report for the Blackhawks. Fleury’s agent explained that the Vezina-winning goaltender would take some time to discuss his future with his family. That decision has now been made, and the 36-year-old will be in a Blackhawks uniform this season.
That means on January 8, 2022, Fleury will face the Golden Knights for the first time, less than a year after winning the Vezina Trophy as the face of the franchise. The first ever star for hockey in Vegas, Fleury actually experienced something of a career renaissance with the expansion franchise. Though he had won three Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the veteran goaltender had been passed over during the most recent ones in favor of Matt Murray. The Penguins decided to send him to Vegas in the expansion draft as he was getting older and expensive.
The Golden Knights welcomed him with open arms, and Fleury had the best stretch of his career with the team. In parts of 13 seasons with the Penguins, he posted a .912 save percentage and never finished higher than seventh in Vezina Trophy voting. In four years with Vegas, Fleury posted a .917 and finished in the top-five for Vezina voting three times, winning it this season after posting a .928.
If that’s the kind of goaltending Chicago receives, it will be a huge upgrade on the 2020-21 season. Heading into the year it wasn’t clear at all who would be the starter, but Kevin Lankinen emerged early on as a rookie sensation. The grind of a condensed schedule eventually kicked in though, and Lankinen would finish with just a .909 save percentage and a 17-14-5 record. The other two goaltenders in Chicago fared even worse, and their team overall posted a .906. If Fleury, who was acquired for basically nothing, can continue with his strong play, the Blackhawks are suddenly a little more interesting to watch in the Central Division playoff race.
Then sign with Pens next year
LFG!
Oh well poor Penguin fans thinking he would never play for anyone but them
Thought he was for sure going to retire
The Central Division (minus the Preds and Coyotes) will be a very competitive division next season.
man of integrity
This is cool
Marc is too nice a guy to hold out forever or make a big scene or force the situation, which is why it was imperative for Hextall to act decisively and move in to acquire him while the threat of retirement could have forced Bowman’s hand.
Instead, he plods along.
They’ll try to rewrite history, but the explanation for his terrible moves in the expansion draft was that he needed to “clear cap space to upgrade the goaltending” and “we can’t go into next season with Jarry as the starter” and yet, here we are. Add in a net loss in truculence.
They’ve downgraded in each transaction and not achieved either of their two main stated goals.
I was going to say I’ll root for the Hawks to win the West next year, but then I remembered that other thing.
I’m glad Marc’s career isn’t being ended by the most cynical “heads we win, tails you lose” move in recent sports memory. And I’d love to get him next year after the fans and media here needlessly run Jarry out of town.
Maybe he just wanted to play for the Hawks
He said he might retire rather than play for them…? Pretty clear it’s not what he wanted.
After all of the teams except Pittsburgh made their goalie moves and he realized he’ll be an AARP member before Hextall makes an aggressive decision with an eye toward winning, his choices were to actually retire coming off his best year or be a Hawk.
What a massive trade chip to have to offer to any contending team that has a starter go down with an injury.
Yes, surprised he wasn’t flipped to Colorado for that strong veteran presence between the pipes.
File this one under, “and then there is the money.”
Funny that the Penguins had MAF and Matt Murray and had to make a decision on who to keep, and they chose Tristan Jarry.
Here before the “wHy WoUld He WaNt To PlAy FoR tHe HaWkS” folks
Good ole Swiss cheese Fluery. Only thing he’s really good at doing is giving up 4 goals in 4 minutes in game 7