Wild Could Approach Marc-André Fleury About Waiving No-Movement Clause
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
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:
- Legendary goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has officially moved into second on the all-time wins list, winning his 552nd game with a 5-0 shutout over the New York Islanders. Fleury is now sat behind just Martin Brodeur. Unfortunately, Fleury is still a long way off of Brodeur’s crown, needing 141 more wins to take the top spot.
- Top 2024 NHL Draft prospect Cayden Lindstrom is set to miss four-to-six weeks after undergoing surgery. He’s been placed on injured reserve for the Medicine Hat Tigers. Lindstrom is projected to be a top-10 pick by many, boasting 27 goals and 46 points in 32 WHL games, and was recently ranked third among North American skaters in the NHL Central Scouting Service’s midyear rankings.
Marc-Andre Fleury Becomes Fourth Goalie With 1,000 Games Played
With his appearance in Minnesota’s 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, Marc-Andre Fleury has officially joined one of the most exclusive clubs in all of hockey, playing in his 1,000th NHL game. While hundreds of skaters have managed the feat, only three other goaltenders have had careers long enough and performances strong enough to reach the mark – Martin Brodeur (1,266 Games), Roberto Luongo (1,044), and Patrick Roy (1,029). The trio is arguably three of the best goaltenders of all time and will now be joined by Fleury, whose 55 percent win-percentage is the highest of any of the four goalies.
Fleury’s path to this milestone came largely thanks to his 13 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where the French Canadian was able to become the winningest goalie in club history with 375 wings through a team-high 691 games played. But it was Fleury’s postseason performances that turned him into a legend for one of the league’s most prolific clubs. Fleury established himself as the team’s long-term starter in the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs, carrying the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals thanks to a dazzling .933 save percentage in 20 starts. He immediately became the guy in the 2008-09 season, ranking eighth in the league with 62 games played. The major uptick in ice time didn’t faze Fleury, who held it together enough to record a .908 save percentage in 24 games during the 2009 Playoffs, helping lift the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 17 years.
But as much as it built up his early career, postseason performances were also the downfall of Fleury’s time in Pittsburgh, who ultimately lost his starting role to the hot hand of rookie Matt Murray during the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Murray would go on to lead the Penguins to another Stanley Cup win, on the back of a .923 save percentage in 21 games. Fleury would continue in Pittsburgh for one more season, platooning with Murray during the 2017 postseason, but the writing was on the wall – and after Murray won over the starting role en route to a second Cup, it was time for Fleury to move on. The Penguins traded the Vegas Golden Knights a second-round draft pick to incentivize them to take Fleury int he 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.
The Golden Knights were quickly rewarded for taking the veteran, with Fleury bouncing immediately back to his postseason form – leading Vegas to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year with a .927 save percentage in 20 games. He continued to thrive in the postseason with Vegas, setting a combined .914 save percentage over his next three seasons with the team, which saw 27 playoff games.
Fleury moved away from the Golden Knights in 2021, briefly joining the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to the Minnesota Wild for a conditional second-round pick. Now 39 years old, Fleury is relishing on a successful .905 save percentage and 39-23-6 record in three years with the Wild. He’s lost the everyday starter role to Filip Gustavsson but still boasts an .893 in 14 games this year.
It’s been a prolific career for Fleury, emphasized by a Gold Medal win at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a Vezina Trophy and William Jennings Trophy win in the 2020-21 season. Fleury is set to become a free agent at the end of this season. If he decides to call it a career, he will be retiring as one of the winningest goaltenders of all time – one of only 21 goaltenders to win three-or-more Stanley Cups and ranked in the top 10 of all-time wins. The question now becomes whether his 1,000th game can combine with all of his other accolades to earn Fleury a Hall of Fame induction.
Gustavsson And Kaprizov Hurt, Wild Recall Two Players
Michael Russo of The Athletic is reporting that Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson and forward Kirill Kaprizov had to leave their game last night against the Winnipeg Jets.
Gustavsson left the game after the second period with an apparent lower-body injury and had to be replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury who dressed in his 999th career NHL game. Gustavsson allowed three goals on 22 shots before the injury issue and had been playing terrific since the Wild made a coaching change. With John Hynes behind the bench for Minnesota, Gustavsson has gone 8-2 with a .932 save percentage and 1.87 goals-against average.
Kaprizov on the other hand sat on the Wild bench in pain after taking two cross-checks to the back from Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon. The incident occurred in the third period and saw the cross-checks go unpenalized. It was the second time this year that Kaprizov has been hurt during a game in Winnipeg as the 26-year-old suffered a lower-body injury last season on March 8th as well. Much like Gustavsson’s injury, Kaprizov’s ailment couldn’t have come at a worse time as he has been terrific as of late under Hynes. Kaprizov has five goals and four assists in his past five games and is up to 34 points in 34 games this season. Both players are currently being evaluated by the Wild’s medical staff.
With the injuries to both players, the Wild have announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Zane McIntyre and forward Nic Petan from Iowa of the AHL. The 31-year-old McIntyre has not dressed in an NHL game since February of 2017 when he was a member of the Boston Bruins and has never won an NHL game in eight appearances. He will likely serve as a backup to Fleury today as the three-time Stanley Cup champion is expected to play in his 1000th career NHL game.
Petan has 165 games of NHL experience and dressed in one game earlier this season for the Wild. The 28-year-old has been terrific this season in the AHL posting 10 goals and 18 assists in 26 games with Iowa. The Wild finish off the calendar year today with a matchup against the Jets in the second half of their home and away series.
Central Notes: Barrie, Lehkonen, Fleury
Over the weekend, news got out that Predators defenseman Tyson Barrie and his camp had been given permission to seek a trade. Speaking recently with 102.5 The Game (video link), GM Barry Trotz expressed his frustration over the news being leaked and how Barrie himself handled being made a healthy scratch for the first time in his career last weekend. The 32-year-old has typically been one of the better offensive producers from the blueline in his career with ten straight seasons of at least 38 points. However, he has been held without a goal and has just ten assists in his first 23 games this season. Barrie is in the final year of his contract which carries a $4.5MM AAV and with his offensive struggles so far, it might not be a deal that’s easy to move. Meanwhile, in his latest piece for The Athletic (subscription link), Pierre LeBrun noted that the Preds aren’t particularly inclined to use their last salary retention slot to help facilitate a swap which will only complicate those attempts further.
More from the Central:
- Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen skated ahead of Colorado’s practice today, relays Corey Masisak of The Denver Post (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has been out for the last month due to a neck injury but was able to shed his neck brace late last month. There remains no timetable for his return but returning to the ice is at least a step in the right direction. Lehkonen had three goals and five assists in a dozen games before the injury.
- Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury remains undecided about his playing future beyond this season, notes John Shipley of the Pioneer Press. The 39-year-old is in his 20th NHL season and second with Minnesota but this one hasn’t gone as well as his first with the team. Fleury has played in ten games so far heading into tonight’s action, posting a 3.21 GAA with a .884 SV%. If those hold, it would be the lowest save percentage of his career and his highest GAA since the 2005-06 campaign. Fleury is in the final year of his contract, one that carries a $3.5MM cap charge.
Matt Murray Undergoes Successful Surgery
Sportsnet is reporting that Toronto Maple Leafs netminder Matt Murray has undergone successful bilateral hip surgery and is expected to miss between six and eight months. This likely means he will miss the entire 2023-24 NHL season. Murray was acquired from the Ottawa Senators in July 2022 along with a third-round pick in exchange for a seventh-round pick and future considerations. It was essentially a salary cap dump at the time by the Ottawa Senators, who retained over $1.5MM of Murray’s $6.25MM cap hit.
The former two-time Stanley Cup champion has fallen on hard times in recent years as his health has kept him out of the lineup for extended periods of time in each of the past five seasons. Murray hasn’t played more than 30 games in a season since the 2019-20 season when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. When he has been available to play, he hasn’t been able to match the levels of play that made him a Stanley Cup champion in 2016 and 2017. Murray hasn’t posted a goals-against average below 3.00 since 2019-20 and has seen his save percentage hover around .900 since 2018-19.
Murray has has struggles with his health for a long time now and one must wonder if he will be able to overcome his latest setback and get back into an NHL lineup. The Thunder Bay, Ontario native has never been able to capture the magic that he put on display early in his career and has seen his stock tumble to the point of being a cap dump last summer.
Murray appeared to be on the cusp of superstardom in 2017 when the Penguins elected to keep him over franchise icon Marc-Andre Fleury who was taken by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft. The Penguins had signed Murray to a three-year extension at the time and thought they had an elite netminder that could lead them to more Stanley Cups. Unfortunately, Murray’s play flatlined and he was unseated as the starter by Tristan Jarry. He was then dealt to the Senators in 2020 and signed to an extension in a move that proved disastrous for Ottawa.
Marc-Andre Fleury Will Decide Playing Future After Season
Likely future Hall-of-Fame netminder Marc-Andre Fleury won’t examine retiring until the 2023-24 season draws to a close, as he told The Athletic’s Joe Smith yesterday during the first day of Wild training camp.
Fleury, 38, is entering the second season of a two-year, $7MM contract extension signed by Wild GM Bill Guerin in July 2022. He’s again expected to shoulder a significant workload as a 1B tandem netminder behind the younger Filip Gustavsson, and he begins 2023-24 on the precipice of multiple milestones, such as the 1,000 games played mark and second-place on the NHL’s all-time wins list behind Patrick Roy. He currently trails Roy by just six and could likely surpass him by the new year.
“I thought about it this summer and stuff, but I just told myself I would give myself this season, see how it goes, see how I feel physically, mentally, if I still can stop the puck and just make a decision at the end,” Fleury told Smith. “There will be ups and downs this season. I’ll try to get through it and make a decision at the end.”
A few years ago, few thought Fleury would be in this position. After becoming an integral part of the Vegas Golden Knights as their first starting netminder in franchise history and winning the Vezina Trophy in 2021, the team ran into salary cap constraints that forced them to trade the final season of a three-year, $7MM AAV contract to the Chicago Blackhawks, whom Fleury did not have on his ten-team no-trade list. At that time, Fleury reportedly considered retiring instead of reporting to the rebuilding Blackhawks after the trade.
He’s still going strong two years later, though, and he’ll play a key support role to a Wild team that continues to have aspirations for a deep playoff run. He remains an above-average netminder, recording a decent .908 save percentage while actually starting the lion’s share of Minnesota’s games last season (he started 45 out of 82) despite Gustavsson’s brilliance. A fourth Stanley Cup championship, should the Wild win, would tie Fleury for third in NHL history among goalies. Montreal Canadiens legends Ken Dryden and Jacques Plante each won six, while Toronto Maple Leafs pre-expansion star Turk Broda won five.
The Wild acquired Fleury near the 2022 trade deadline from the Blackhawks, sending their 2022 second-round pick to them in return. Chicago used the pick to select playmaking center Ryan Greene, who’s about to begin his sophomore campaign at Boston University.
If Fleury opts to continue his playing career after 2023-24, though, it may not be in the State of Hockey. After an additional year of seasoning in the AHL, 2021 first-round pick Jesper Wallstedt will likely be ready for a full-time backup role behind Gustavsson.
Maple Leafs To Place Matt Murray On LTIR
The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that they will be placing goaltender Matt Murray on the LTIR prior to the start of the 2023-24 season. No details on Murray’s injury were provided in the release, which will surely lead to a lot of speculation in the coming days. With Murray joining Jake Muzzin on LTIR, the Maple Leafs will remain $2.1MM over the salary cap, meaning that they will need to do some cap gymnastics in the coming weeks to try and get under the $83.5MM salary cap by October.
Murray’s first season in Toronto was a difficult one for the former two-time Stanley Cup champion as he battled inconsistency and injuries once again. The Thunder Bay, Ontario native hasn’t been able to steady his game or remain in the net since his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Murray was dealt by the Penguins to the Ottawa Senators in October 2020 and quickly signed a four-year extension worth $24MM. The deal was heavily criticized at the time as being too rich and too long for a goaltender that had struggled to stay healthy and consistent.
The Senators were then forced into a cap dump last summer as they traded Murray to the Maple Leafs along with two draft picks for future considerations. Trading for Murray was a good idea in theory from former general manager Kyle Dubas, however, in reality, the deal never worked out for Toronto as Murray was unable to bounce back or stay healthy. Murray dressed in just 26 games going 14-8-2 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
The move will effectively end any talks of a buyout, which is ultimately the best outcome for the player and team. Matt Murray will retain his entire $8MM salary for the upcoming season and the Leafs will be able to use the entire $4.7MM of the cap space that would have been allocated to Murray.
It is quite the fall from grace for a netminder who looked like a budding superstar just six years ago. Murray won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins as a rookie and looked like he was the future of the Penguins when the team moved on from franchise icon Marc-Andre Fleury. However, Murray’s career began to derail a short time later due to multiple injuries and inconsistent play and since then he has been unable to right the ship.
Evening Notes: Gustavsson, Crammarossa, Iowa
Joe Smith of The Athletic writes that it appears the Minnesota Wild and goaltender Filip Gustavsson will decide their contract dispute in arbitration. Smith writes that the deal will get done but will most likely be done through an arbitrator as the sides appear unlikely to reach an agreement without the intervention. The Wild and Gustavsson are set to go to arbitration on August 4th, and with Ilya Samsonov’s ruling now official and Jeremy Swayman’s case set to be heard later this week, both sides should have a clearer picture of what would be a fair contract from the club and the 25-year-old goaltender.
Gustavsson excelled in his first year in Minnesota after coming over in an off-season trade from the Ottawa Senators. It was expected that the native of Skelleftea, Sweden would backup Marc-Andre Fleury, however by the time the playoffs rolled around Gustavsson owned the Minnesota net having gone 22-9-7 with a .931 save percentage and a 2.10 goals-against average.
The Wild are dealing with a very precarious cap situation as they deal with the blowback from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts that are eating up about $15MM of Minnesota’s cap space. However, they do still have around $5MM in cap space remaining to re-sign the young netminder.
In other evening notes:
- Joseph Cramarossa has officially signed a contract with the Löwen Frankfurt of the DEL league. Cramarossa played in the NHL as recently as the past season as he played four games for the Minnesota Wild, scoring just a single goal. He also posted four goals and five assists in 18 games with the Iowa Wild of the AHL. Back in January of this year, Cramarossa had his contract terminated by the Wild and at that time he went overseas to play for Adlern Mannheim of the DEK. While in Germany Cramarossa posted two goals and six assists in 15 games.
- Lastly, the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL have announced that they’ve come to terms with defensemen Robbie Stucker and Ben Brinkman on contracts for the 2023-24 season. The club also announced that forward Jake Durflinger has agreed to a deal as well. Brinkman and Stucker were formerly teammates at the University of Minnesota from 2018-21 while Durflinger will enter his second season with the Heartlanders having played 50 games last season posting 10 goals and 10 assists. The 25-year-old finished the season strong scoring seven of his ten goals between March 18th and April 7th.
Central Notes: Fleury, Girard, Namestnikov
After serving as the backup for most of the playoffs, Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury indicated to reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link) after Friday’s series-ending loss to Dallas that he intends to fulfill the final year of his contract and not retire this summer. Russo notes (subscription link) that the veteran had indicated that he’d be open to hanging up his skates if he showed this season that he couldn’t play up to his standards. While Fleury didn’t have his best campaign, he still posted an above-average .908 SV% along with a 2.85 GAA in 46 games, clearly showing he can still compete at the top level. He’ll enter next season seven wins away from tying Patrick Roy for the second-most regular season victories in NHL history.
More from the Central:
- While Colorado is still alive in their first-round series, some are already looking ahead to what their offseason might look like. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli is one of those, suggesting that defenseman Samuel Girard could be the odd one out on the back end for the Avalanche with the team needing to fill as many as nine roster spots with not a ton of cap space to work with. The 24-year-old should be highly sought after if that happens as he’ll have four years left on his deal after this one at a $5MM AAV which is good value for someone consistently logging more than 21 minutes a night on the back end while chipping in offensively; he had a career-high 37 points this season.
- Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov has certainly bounced around lately, playing for seven different teams since 2019. With that in mind, Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe wonders if Winnipeg offering the 30-year-old a multi-year extension would be enough to get the pending UFA to become a longer-term piece for the team instead of just being another rental. Namestnikov had 10 points in 20 games during the regular season after being acquired at the trade deadline while chipping in with a pair of assists in their five-game loss to Vegas.