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Marc-Andre Fleury

Marc-André Fleury Joining Canada For World Championship

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While his last NHL game is behind him, future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Marc-André Fleury isn’t hanging up the skates just yet. He told reporters during today’s end-of-season media availability that he’s accepted an invite to join Canada at this year’s World Championship (via Michael Russo of The Athletic).

It’s unclear whether he plans on entering any game action, but there’s a decent chance he could. Canada’s only rostered one of three goalies for the tournament so far. That’s Rangers prospect Dylan Garand, who will likely serve as a No. 3 option behind Fleury and another NHL option. The latter could be the Blues’ Jordan Binnington after St. Louis was eliminated in last night’s Game 7 loss to the Jets, but that’s speculation.

As for the 40-year-old Fleury, it’ll be his first time at the Worlds. Despite his lengthy list of accolades, Fleury’s only gotten the call to play for the senior Canadian national team once. That was the 2010 Winter Olympics, and he didn’t get into game action there as the third-stringer behind Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur. His unavailability for the Worlds has usually been due to playoff obligations, but with his Wild being bounced by the Golden Knights in the first round, he’s free to join his countrymen in Denmark and Sweden. He did suit up at the World Juniors in 2003 and 2004, though, posting a .923 SV% in 10 appearances en route to back-to-back silver medals.

He’s still technically a gold-medal winner on that Olympic team, so a gold at the 2025 Worlds could make him the first goaltender to gain entry into the Triple Gold Club. The most recent Canadian to enter the ranks was defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, thanks to his 2019 Stanley Cup win with the Blues.

Fleury, a first-overall pick and a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins, will also get to bookend his career by being teammates with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby once again. With Fleury’s lack of international experience, they haven’t been on the same side of a matchup since Vegas selected Fleury from the Pens in the 2017 expansion draft.

Marc-André Fleury Announces Retirement

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The last goaltender selected with the first overall pick has officially hung up his skates. As expected after his farewell tour, the NHL Alumni Association announced that Marc-André Fleury has retired from the NHL after 21 seasons.

Fleury’s career began on October 10, 2003, on a rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins’ team, losing to the Los Angeles Kings. He wouldn’t have to wait long for his first win, as they defeated the Detroit Red Wings a few days later on October 18th.

It wouldn’t be Fleury’s win against Detroit either. Although they lost in a hotly contested 2008 Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins won a year later. Thanks to a game-saving win against Nicklas Lidstrom in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, Fleury backstopped Pittsburgh to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1992.

Although the Penguins had successful seasons, it took a few years for them to return to the Stanley Cup Final. When they finally made it back, Fleury had moved into a backup role, while Matt Murray took over as the starting goaltender. Murray helped lead the Penguins to consecutive championships in 2016 and 2017.

This was largely the end of Fleury’s tenure in Pittsburgh. The team left Fleury exposed in that summer’s expansion draft, again in favor of Murray, leaving the upstart Vegas Golden Knights to select him.

Fleury, with an impressive record of 29 wins, 13 losses, and 4 overtime losses, along with a .927 save percentage in 46 games, helped the Golden Knights not only reach the playoffs but also advance to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year.. Unfortunately, Vegas couldn’t capitalize on their Cinderella run, it was a clear resurgence in Fleury’s career.

He experienced several more successful years with Vegas before being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in late summer 2021. ’Flower’ only spent one year with the Original Six organization before being traded to the Minnesota Wild at the subsequent trade deadline.

Finally, Fleury’s career ended last night at the hands of the Golden Knights. He finished his career with a 575-339-97 record in 1,051 career games with a .912 SV% and 2.6o GAA. He won the Vezina Trophy along with the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2020-21 and currently sits second all-time in goalie win leaders, besting Patrick Roy by 24 wins and falling short of Martin Brodeur by 116.

Marc-Andre Fleury, Gabriel Landeskog, Sean Monahan Named Masterton Trophy Finalists

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The NHL has announced the three finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The award is presented each year to the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” This year’s finalists are Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Sean Monahan.

The race for the sportsmanship title may be closer than ever this season. Leading the back is the 40-year-old Fleury, who played the last game of his illustrious career on Tuesday night. Fleury is one of just three goaltenders to ever be drafted first overall, and he’s the only one of the trio to play through a full career in the NHL. He amassed 1,051 appearances and ended his career on a strong note this season, posting a satisfactory 14-9-1 record and .899 save percentage while serving as Minnesota’s backup. Fleury went through a true farewell tour this season, facing standing ovations and long hand-shake lines in many of his final stops around the league. A Masterton win would acknowledge the 21 years of formidable hockey and warm personality that Fleury offered the league.

While Fleury stands for achievement, Landeskog will represent true perseverance on this year’s ballot. The Avalanche captain made his long-awaited return to the ice this postseason, finally marking the end of his recovery from a skate-cut injury suffered in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Multiple surgeries and extended absences marked his 2021-22 campaign, though he stayed together long enough to net 22 points in 20 playoff games en route to Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup win.

But Landeskog fell completely out of the lineup after he lifted the Cup, and has spent the last three years fighting to return to game shape. His journey to recovery was outlined in the ’A Clean Sheet’ documentary, hosted on HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. After three years of dedication, Landeskog has looked back to form in his return to the ice. He has four points in four playoff games and helped will a Game 7 when Colorado faced elimination on Thursday night.

For Monahan, Masterton recognition will mean something else entirely. The 30-year-old centerman signed a five-year, $27.5MM contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets last summer, intent on joining close friend Johnny Gaudreau on the team’s top line. But tragedy struck when Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, were killed by an alleged drunk driver in the weeks leading up to the season.

It was Earth-shattering news for much of the Columbus organization and fanbase, especially Monahan, who now lives two doors down from the Gaudreau family in Columbus. He channeled any emotions into incredible hockey to start the year, netting 41 points in 41 games to start the season. But Monahan sustained a right-wrist injury on Jan. 7 that forced him to miss nearly 10 weeks of action. He stayed hot when he returned, finishing the year with 16 points in 13 games, but the surge fell just a little short, and Columbus ultimately missed the postseason by just one win. Even then, Monahan’s season was a deep show of the resilience, community, and compassion that exists in the hockey world – all attributes that seem aptly summarized by the Bill Masterton Trophy.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports.

2024 King Clancy Trophy Nominees Announced

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Today, the NHL announced the 32 nominees for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, annually presented to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

Each team submitted their nominee; they are as follows:

Anaheim Ducks: Cam Fowler
Arizona Coyotes: Nick Bjugstad
Boston Bruins: Linus Ullmark
Buffalo Sabres: Alex Tuch
Calgary Flames: Andrew Mangiapane
Carolina Hurricanes: Jaccob Slavin
Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Murphy
Colorado Avalanche: Cale Makar
Columbus Blue Jackets: Zach Werenski
Dallas Stars: Jake Oettinger
Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin
Edmonton Oilers: Darnell Nurse
Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov
Los Angeles Kings: Kevin Fiala
Minnesota Wild: Marc-Andre Fleury
Montreal Canadiens: Nick Suzuki
Nashville Predators: Roman Josi
New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes
New York Islanders: Anders Lee
New York Rangers: Jacob Trouba
Ottawa Senators: Brady Tkachuk
Philadelphia Flyers: Scott Laughton
Pittsburgh Penguins: Bryan Rust
San Jose Sharks: Luke Kunin
Seattle Kraken: Jaden Schwartz
St. Louis Blues: Brayden Schenn
Tampa Bay Lightning: Nick Paul
Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews
Vancouver Canucks: Quinn Hughes
Vegas Golden Knights: Jack Eichel
Washington Capitals: Tom Wilson
Winnipeg Jets: Josh Morrissey

Unlike most awards which are voted on by the players or media, the winner of this award is selected by a committee consisting of Commissioner Gary Bettman and former winners of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy and the NHL Foundation Player Award, one that was awarded from 1997-98 through 2016-17.

Last year’s winner was Calgary’s Mikael Backlund.  The winner for this season will be revealed in late June.

Wild Extend Marc-André Fleury

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The Wild have signed netminder Marc-André Fleury to a one-year extension worth $2.5MM, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports. The contract contains a full no-move clause, per PuckPedia.

Fleury returns for his 21st NHL season, which he confirmed will be his last, as he attempts to widen the gap between him and Patrick Roy for second place on the NHL’s all-time wins list. The future Hall-of-Famer was the first overall pick by the Penguins in 2003. He immediately made the jump to the NHL – incredibly rare for a goalie – and was Pittsburgh’s undisputed starter by the time the league emerged from the 2004-05 lockout.

His time in Pittsburgh was incredibly fruitful, starting en route to their 2009 Stanley Cup win and working in tandem with Matt Murray for their 2016 and 2017 championships before heading to the Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft. There, he led Vegas to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final and captured his first and only Vezina Trophy in 2021. He was dealt to the Blackhawks for salary cap management purposes the following summer and later flipped to the Wild at the 2022 trade deadline, where he’s remained since.

The veteran was prone to a few stinker seasons once in a while, but he hasn’t truly performed at a high level since his Golden Knights days. That age-36 season in 2020-21 was truly remarkable. During the COVID-shortened season, he posted a career-high .928 SV% and 1.98 GAA with six shutouts in just 36 starts. He wasn’t bad by any stretch in the following two seasons with Chicago and Minnesota, posting a 52-39-9 record with a .908 SV% in 102 appearances in 2021-22 and 2022-23, but it was clear he was no longer cut out for a full-time starting role. Thus, he’s served in tandem with the younger Filip Gustavsson for the life of the two-year, $7MM extension he signed with Minnesota in 2022.

Fleury’s numbers were decidedly worse this season. Making only 35 starts, his fewest since 2016-17, the 39-year-old has a 17-14-5 record, 2.98 GAA, and .895 SV% entering the Wild’s final game of the season tomorrow, which he’s slated to start. He’s allowed 10.8 goals above expected this season, the worst among Wild netminders and sixth-worst in the league, per MoneyPuck. His save percentage is his worst ever, including his first couple of seasons behind a developing/rebuilding Pens team.

His extension indicates one of two possibilities for the Wild crease – either last year’s breakout star Filip Gustavsson is on the trade block after crashing down to Earth in 2023-24, or the organization doesn’t believe top goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt is quite ready for full-time NHL duties. Gustavsson, who has two years remaining on his deal at a $3.75MM cap hit, posted only marginally better numbers than Fleury this year, with a .899 SV% in 43 starts and two relief appearances. Wallstedt, 21, put up a .908 SV% in 43 contests behind a subpar AHL Iowa squad and ended his season on a high note, stopping 51 of 53 shots in wins this month against the Sharks and Blackhawks after conceding seven goals against the Stars in his NHL debut in January.

Awarding a declining Fleury $2.5MM after the netminder already made it clear Minnesota or retirement were his only two options next season is an arguably questionable decision by GM Bill Guerin. The club still has one season remaining of the most extreme effects of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts, which leave them with a $14.7MM dead cap charge. The Wild are now down to $5.2MM in projected cap space next season, per CapFriendly, although their roster is mostly filled out with only three open spots.

Still, a lower cap charge for Fleury would have given Guerin more flexibility to add on the free agent market this summer in an effort to get Minnesota back to the playoffs in 2025 after missing out this year. It’s much higher than last year’s comparable, all-time American wins leader Jonathan Quick coming off an inconsistent 2022-23 campaign, who earned just $825K with an additional $100K performance bonus on the open market from the Rangers.

Nonetheless, Fleury returns for his third full season with Minnesota. The Quebec native has accumulated an estimated $84.4MM in career earnings before today’s extension, per CapFriendly.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Marc-André Fleury Interested In Returning To Wild Next Season

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Future Hall-of-Fame netminder Marc-André Fleury hasn’t decided he’s ready to hang up his skates and is open to returning to the Wild next season, he told NHL.com/fr Senior Reporter Jean-François Chaumont this week.

If Fleury returns for his 21st year in the NHL, it will only be in the Twin Cities. The pending UFA told Chaumont that he “wouldn’t want to move and take my three kids out of their environment” and that “it’s probably Minnesota or retirement.”

The 39-year-old has occupied the 1A role in Minnesota as the Wild try to claw their way into the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Fleury started eight of 12 games in March. He was excellent for most of that stretch, going 4-1-1 with a .936 SV% between March 2 and March 16, but he has now surrendered five goals in each of his last two starts.

It hasn’t been a season to write home about for either him or tandem partner Filip Gustavsson, who have both logged save percentages under .900 after serving as one of the league’s better goalie tandems a season ago. His .899 SV% is his lowest since his first two NHL seasons with the Penguins in 2003-04 and 2005-06 behind a team that was inarguably the league’s worst defensively. However, that didn’t stop him from overtaking Patrick Roy for second place on the league’s all-time wins list earlier this season, now nine ahead of his countryman with 560.

He’s still been serviceable as a backup and has bounced back from a highly disappointing 2021-22 campaign split between the Wild and the Blackhawks, where his -17.2 goals saved above expected was fourth-worst in the NHL, per MoneyPuck. He may not move the needle much if he returns for his age-40 season – his birthday is in November – but there’s reason to believe he can still keep pace with the NHL game.

Obviously, Fleury believes he can, citing his increased comfort level and “rediscovered joy” as the season progressed. The netminder said that while he never reached a final decision, he entered the 2023-24 campaign thinking “it was going to be my last season,” a feeling exacerbated by hip problems he said plagued him as Minnesota struggled out of the gate.

Those are in the rearview now, and he’s ready to return if he still has a place in the organization. He made it clear to Chaumont that he knows that’s not a guarantee, saying he’ll speak with Minnesota GM Bill Guerin about his vision for next season and if the team feels top goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt is ready for a full-time role alongside Gustavsson, who has two seasons remaining on his contract.

Wallstedt, the 20th overall pick in the 2021 draft, struggled in his NHL debut in January, conceding seven goals on 34 shots faced in a rout at the hands of the Stars. However, he’s had a strong second season in the minors with AHL Iowa, posting a .911 SV% and 20-17-3 record in 40 games behind a weaker squad. He was sent to the AHL All-Star Game after making it as a rookie last season, too.

Guerin told Chaumont that he’s “more than open to the possibility of seeing him coming back for another season” and “there’s still some gas left in his tank.” Fleury’s made it clear that money won’t be a major consideration on a one-year extension and could very well take as low as the league minimum salary as Minnesota continues to navigate a tough salary cap situation created by the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, which still combine for a $14.7MM dead cap charge next season.

It would be the second extension the Sorel, Quebec, native signs in Minnesota. After coming over from Chicago ahead of the 2022 trade deadline, he signed a two-year, $7MM deal with full no-move protection to close out his days of earning multi-year contracts.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Wild Won’t Trade Marc-André Fleury

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Feb. 28: It appears Fleury and the Wild are now solidly on the same page. Minnesota is informing teams they won’t be moving the veteran netminder ahead of the deadline, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Feb. 25: Wild netminder Marc-André Fleury has indicated he’d prefer to stay with the Wild as they attempt to stay in the Western Conference playoff race, Joe Smith of The Athletic relayed Sunday. As such, it appears unlikely he’ll waive his no-movement clause ahead of the March 8 trade deadline and will finish out the season in Minnesota.

“I don’t want to just quit, right?” Fleury said to Smith after the Wild’s 5-2 win over the Kraken on Saturday. “I want us to make the playoffs. That’s my first priority. I think being in the hunt, it’s fun, it’s challenging. And I want to be here and see this team make the playoffs.”

In the final season of a two-year, $7MM extension, the 39-year-old Fleury could regain the starting role in the Minnesota crease with Filip Gustavsson struggling if they manage to squeak into the postseason. Neither he nor Gustavsson has been above average, but he’s put up slightly better surface-level numbers with a .899 SV% and 2.92 GAA in 24 starts and four relief appearances. Gustavsson, on the other hand, has a .896 SV% and 3.23 GAA in 33 starts and one relief appearance.

Fleury has started five of nine games since returning from an upper-body injury sustained before the All-Star break. The Wild are 7-1-1 in that timeframe, firmly putting them back in postseason contention after they looked far out of place just a few weeks ago. They’re two points behind the Predators for the final Wild Card spot in the West.

Regardless of his intentions, there will likely be a fair amount of trade interest in Fleury over the coming days from contending teams looking to supplant a weaker starter with a better backup option. If the Wild can maintain a winning record between now and the deadline, however, it seems unlikely Fleury will green-light a deal.

Injury Notes: Hamonic, Svechnikov, Wild

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Ottawa Senators defenseman Travis Hamonic sustained an upper-body injury in today’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, and did not return to the game.  Hamonic played in a little over five minutes before the injury forced him out of the action. The 33-year-old veteran has played in 40 games this season for the Senators and registered five points, averaging 14:59 time-on-ice per game.

Should Hamonic miss any time, the Senators would need to fill in for him on their third pairing. Should Hamonic miss any time, the Senators could plug their seventh defenseman, Erik Brännström, into the lineup in Hamonic’s place. Brännström is a quicker, transition-oriented defenseman which means his skillset differs quite drastically compared to Hamonic, a stay-at-home blueliner, so if he does re-enter the lineup in a Hamonic absence the Senators’ pairings could end up a little shuffled.

Some other injury updates from across the NHL:

  • Yesterday, we covered how Carolina Hurricanes star Andrei Svechnikov missed practice due to health reasons. Today, the Hurricanes announced that Svechnikov will miss tonight’s game due to due to an upper-body injury. Svechnikov has battled injuries over the last two years but has been brilliant, as expected, when healthy. He’s scored 30 points in 29 games this season.
  • The Athletic’s Joe Smith relayed word from Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes related to injuries to numerous Wild players. Hynes offered no update on the status of either Marc-Andre Fleury or Frederick Gaudreau, though he did not rule out Fleury potentially playing later in the week. He also added that Vinni Lettieri is skating back in St. Paul. Lettieri has not played yet in 2024 but has skated in 19 games with the Wild this season, his most since his 2021-22 season with the Anaheim Ducks.

Wild Could Approach Marc-André Fleury About Waiving No-Movement Clause

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The Wild have been one of the league’s most disappointing teams this season. While their latest 5-0 win over the Islanders kept their record from slipping further, they remain two games below .500 and sit eight points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. In the likely event that general manager Bill Guerin’s prediction of a roaring turnaround doesn’t come to fruition, the Wild could approach goaltender Marc-André Fleury about waiving his no-movement clause for a deadline trade, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun confirms in a piece for The Athletic.

Fleury, 39, signed a two-year, $7MM extension with the Wild in July 2022. He chose to remain in the State of Hockey after they brought him in from the struggling Blackhawks near the 2022 trade deadline, splitting duties down the stretch with then-tandem partner Cam Talbot before assuming the starting role in their first-round loss to the Blues.

In his 79 regular-season appearances with the Wild, Fleury has provided numbers expected from a decent veteran backup with a .905 SV%, 2.87 GAA, three shutouts, and 0.1 goals saved above average with a 41-27-7 record. However, after posting above-average numbers last season, this one has been a struggle: his SV% is down to .897, and he’s conceded 4.2 goals above average in 22 appearances (19 starts).

He isn’t the only Minnesota netminder having a tough season. After last season’s breakout campaign that earned him some season-ending All-Star votes, 25-year-old Filip Gustavsson’s stat line is in the same mediocre territory as Fleury’s. Things looked to be trending upward during a December hot streak, but he’s come crashing down to Earth during the Wild’s recent run of poor results. In his last five starts, Gustavsson has a 2-3-0 record and .854 SV%, although he’s only played once since missing seven games with a lower-body injury.

However, only Fleury is a pending UFA, while Gustavsson is beginning a three-year, $11.25MM deal signed following an arbitration filing last summer. As such, the veteran is on the trade block over the youngster, and, as LeBrun reports, “a couple of teams” will reach out to Guerin soon to gauge his availability and cost. What’s not sure is if Fleury, who just moved into second place on the NHL’s all-time wins list, will consent to a deal.

LeBrun expects playing time to be Fleury’s primary factor in considering a move. With three Stanley Cups under his belt, he’s not ring-chasing in what could be his final season. However, he may be interested in closing out his career by playing a starting or 1A role on a contender with significant issues in the crease.

In any event, this would likely be a money-in, money-out trade. Any contender pressing to acquire Fleury will be in the same tight salary cap situation as the Wild, albeit for different reasons. No other team has more money allocated toward dead cap than Minnesota, whose buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter still total a $14.74MM penalty through next season.

Two bona fide contenders with undefined netminding situations come to mind: the Oilers and Hurricanes. The goaltending looks to be figuring itself out in Edmonton without outside help, though – Stuart Skinner has a .930 SV% in his last 17 games and is now up to a .903 SV% on the season after a horrid start.

Things haven’t improved much for Carolina, however. 24-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov’s .900 SV% in 23 games is serviceable, but he’s now out of the lineup after sustaining a concussion last Thursday against the Ducks. Veteran Antti Raanta’s cringeworthy .868 SV% is enough to sink the team’s chances of winning just one round, no matter how well they play in front of him, and he carries a documented injury risk of his own.

Given the parameters outlined by LeBrun, it’s hard to find a more evident fit for Fleury than in Raleigh. The team is skilled enough in the shot-suppression department that average play from the veteran should be enough to get them over the hump, especially at the rate that offensive stars Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov are producing this season.

LeBrun bandies a trio of other potentially playoff-bound teams that could have an interest – the Maple Leafs, Devils, and Avalanche. The Devils are no playoff lock at this stage, though, and Fleury would have a more difficult path to playing time in Colorado and Toronto.

Evening Notes: Barkov, Fleury, Lindstrom

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Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice shared that Aleksander Barkov had a lower-body injury that tightened up on him in the third period, leading to Maurice benching the top centerman for the rest of the game. The injury has been labeled as minor but it is expected to hold Barkov out of the team’s Wednesday night game as well.

Barkov is having yet another productive season, ranked second on the Panthers in scoring with 45 points in 39 games. He’s behind only Sam Reinhart, who has 31 goals and 54 points of his own. Barkov is in the second season of an eight-year contract that carries a $10MM cap hit. He’s played in all but three of Florida’s games up to this point.

Other notes from around the league:

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