The Narrative of the Marc-Andre Fleury Trade Continues to Change

It’s early, but statistically speaking, Marc-Andre Fleury has been the worst goalie in the National Hockey League this season. In his first two games with the Minnesota Wild, he has let in 11 goals and been pulled once. The Wild are 0-2 with two seven-goals-against losses to the LA Kings and NY Rangers.

Conversely, the undefeated Vegas Golden Knights have two inexperienced goaltenders playing excellent hockey at the start of the 2022-23 season.

It has been over a year and a half since the Golden Knights traded franchise goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and the narratives of the most infamous trade in team history are changing yet again.

At the Right Time?

With Fleury’s struggles, did the Golden Knights trade him at the right time? In his final season with the Golden Knights, he won both the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender and split the Jennings Trophy with Robin Lehner.

He has not been anywhere near that player since.

He played 45 games with the struggling Chicago Blackhawks team in 2021-22 and posted a pedestrian .908 save percentage before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild at the NHL trade deadline. In Minnesota, he played in 11 regular-season games and then five in the playoffs before the St. Louis Blues eliminated Minnesota in Round One.

Age is another factor. Fleury is almost 38. This is his 19th season in the NHL, and he is on record discussing a potential retirement. He has one year left on his deal with the Wild. There is no question Fleury is a Hall of Fame goaltender. But what does he have left in the tank for the Wild?

The Dominoes- Positive

Hindsight is a pain. There are a lot of dominoes that have fallen since the Fleury trade that I don’t think anyone in the NHL could have predicted. Some are positive for the Vegas Golden Knights, while others…are not.

On the positive side, without the cap space acquired by trading Fleury, it is unlikely the Golden Knights would have gotten Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres. Evgenii Dadonov was initially acquired with some of the Fleury money, too, but that was an ill-fated situation from the start.

The emergence of Logan Thompson would have been impossible with Fleury and Lehner as the NHL goalies. Just two years ago, Thompson was playing with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL behind Fleury, Lehner, and even Oscar Dansk on the team’s depth chart.

The Dominoes- Negative

On the flip side, having Fleury during Robin Lehner’s injuries would have been beneficial, not just to last season but to this season as well. Injuries cannot be predicted, but having Fleury as a reliable starter instead of inexperienced goalies would obviously be a plus.

Of course, the biggest negative of losing Fleury is the loss of his character. His locker room presence has improved every team for which he has played, and the presence of the fan-favorite franchise goaltender cannot be replicated.

What Still Stings

As time continues to pass, I think Golden Knights fans are starting to accept that keeping Fleury would not have been the most incredible idea ever. Do the Golden Knights make the playoffs last season with Fleury and Lehner?

Maybe.

But they would have likely missed out on acquiring Jack Eichel, Logan Thompson’s emergence, and what could be the gap year that kicks this team back into gear for a deep 2023 Stanley Cup Playoff run.

The thing that still stings after all of this time is the return for Fleury, which was essentially a bag of pucks. Blackhawks prospect Mikhael Hakkarainen was traded to the VGK but has since retired from hockey due to a heart condition.

The Blackhawks got more for Fleury at the deadline, trading him to the Wild (a second-round pick) than the Golden Knights did for their franchise goalie.

There is the obvious cap space factor, and we saw the Golden Knights do this again this past offseason with Max Pacioretty. Perhaps these types of trades may become a community in the NHL.

Anyway, as the narrative continues to develop, does the Fleury deal look differently in your eyes?