He it is. It is a topic that cannot be ignored anymore. I am of course referencing Marc-Andre Fleury’s potential return to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yes, I do think the chances are a lot better than zero so it is something that should be taken seriously.

Why is this possible? Well, the Penguins are certainly looking for a better goaltender whether they want to admit it in public or not and Marc-Andre Fleury is coming off of the best season of his career at age 36. For the first time in his career Fleury will be a finalist for the Vezina Trophy and he 100% deserves it. You could make a strong argument for him to win the award. He never really came close to playing at the level he did this year with the Penguins. Fleury’s best year in Pittsburgh was a .921 save percentage while he was .928 this year and .927 his debut season in Vegas. Fleury only made the Vezina voting twice in Pittsburgh with one 7th place finish and one 8th place finish. In Vegas he has a 4th, 5th, and a top three finish this year:



In the middle of the .927 and .928 in Vegas are a .913 and .905 performance. Fleury is a career .913 goalie. Anybody who has followed the Penguins knows all about the ups and down surrounding Fleury and Vegas is starting to experience the wild roller coaster that is Fleury as well.

Fleury’s .905 season led to the Golden Knights trading for and then signing Robin Lehner to a five-year contract despite having Fleury locked into a 7M AAV contract of his own. Each of the last two seasons it was Robin Lehner who finished the playoffs as the Golden Knights starting goaltender and not Fleury. Fleury most certainly deserved and earned the starting gig for the playoffs with his regular season this year, but he also showed his biggest weakness yet again. He is susceptible to literally throwing games away with huge preventable mistakes in the playoffs. Even with the tremendous regular season Fleury was a huge reason the Golden Knights did not make it past the Montreal Canadiens. He was on the bench the year prior and the year before that he blew a 3-1 series lead against the Sharks and famously blew a 3-0 third period lead in Game 7 before losing in overtime. In four of the last six years he did not end the playoffs as his team’s starter.

Vegas is a team always looking to make a splash with its roster (perhaps even Jack Eichel this offseason). They’ll need cap space and Fleury’s 7M contract is a lot more movable considering the year he had this past regular season. Combine that with the fact he will be a pending unrestricted free agent is makes the task even easier. I think the Golden Knights will try to move Fleury’s cap hit to improve other areas of the roster with Robin Lehner locked into his contract. I also don’t think the cost to acquire will be significantly high if a team is willing to consider eating the full 7M cap hit. If a team wants Vegas to eat some of the contract the cost to acquire would rise in concert with how much they eat, although there could be a third party who to launder some of the cap hit as well.

Jim Rutherford tried to aggressively pursue Fleury before he ditched the team. I think the chance is greater than zero for the new regime to attempt getting Fleury again. We know ownership and the players love him. If the Penguins do re-acquire their former starting goalie we know what they are getting into. Fleury is Death Valley, the highs are high and the lows are low. Rarely, over his career do you find that happy medium.

Thanks for reading!

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