The Vegas Golden Knights are trading the first icon in franchise history. Marc-Andre Fleury, who has been the face of the Golden Knights since the expansion draft is on his way to the Chicago Blackhawks, according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Kaplan adds that the Golden Knights are not retaining any salary and that the Blackhawks will send just Mikael Hakkarainen in return. On a press conference later in the day, Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon confirmed that though they will own the contract of Hakkarainen, he will stay with the Rockford IceHogs.
Bob McKenzie of TSN tweets that Chicago was not on Fleury’s no-trade list, and the goaltender did not want to play anywhere but Vegas. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that there are “rumblings” the veteran goaltender might even choose to retire due to family reasons. Jesse Granger of The Athletic adds that Fleury learned of the trade via Twitter.
Though there had been speculation about Fleury’s future in Vegas ever since Robin Lehner arrived and signed an extension with the club, this is still a stunning move just weeks after he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender. The team has cleared his entire $7MM cap hit, giving them room to make additional moves this summer, but it’s still a hard way for the organization’s first-ever superstar to leave town.
From the moment he was selected, Fleury became the center of the Golden Knights marketing strategy given his Stanley Cup resume and outgoing personality, but he soon became much more than that. The backbone of the roster for four seasons, Fleury actually experienced his own late-career renaissance, posting stronger numbers in Vegas than he had ever registered in Pittsburgh. He finished fifth in the Vezina voting during the 2017-18 season, while leading the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in year one.
Now, at age-36, no one would blame Fleury for hanging up his pads. He sits third all-time on the NHL wins list, tenth in games played, and has now taken home the top individual and team trophies available. Going to Chicago, where there is certainly no guarantee of Stanley Cup contention, would be an odd footnote on the end of a career spent exclusively in two cities. He would however be walking away from the $6MM he is still owed, quite the complicating factor in any decision.
For Vegas, opening up this amount of cap space will lead to wild speculation about their offseason plans. The team now has more than $12MM in cap space with only Nolan Patrick to sign as a restricted free agent. Never afraid to go after the big fish, they now have enough money to pursue the top free agents or trade targets.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Who needs waivers when you can just trade players for literally nothing?
Ah and it’s been changed…original story said “Vegas will receive nothing in exchange”
Yeah, unfortunately, Dreger was mistaken with his original tweet. Hakkarainen will be the return.
Sheesh. Nothing in return. Unbelievable.
Valuable cap space. 7mil is a lot for a gk.
Penguins reunion incoming.
Maybe trade Sammy Poulen. Might be an overpay but Hextall gotta get this done.
Poulen and a 2nd and CHI retains salary
Vegas needed to create cap space & there it is, trade your Vezina Trophy winning goalie for a player who has played only 14 games in the AHL
I get it, but it’s still a tough blow for Vegas fans.
I’m hoping Fleury would want to play for Chicago, because it would be exciting to see him in a Hawks jersey. But I’m sure he’s going to retire and ruin the few mins of excitement I had lol
Pretty sure he will retire too, what a weird move to make right before free agency, if fleury will play for us it’s great I’m not sure the piece we sent back is more than a 4th liner, just feels like he will call it if his family loves being in Vegas…my kids are young and I very much understand why Duncan Keith wanted to be closer to his son and I would understand if fleury retired to spend time with his family
They’re going to trade him for a real return.
If they retain salary Fleury is all of a sudden worth a haul at 3.5 mil
That’s the cap for you. The owners won’t care until it affects their bottom line.
Vegas will still sell out. I’ve always said you should have one home drafted player never count against the cap and one free agent never count against the cap. And the goalie cap is a league wide average of the 4 goalies in your system. You pay whatever is above the average of you are over.
This way you pay your goalies and you pay what you drafted and what you sought in FA.
they also already have a GK who has outplayed him in the past so..
What if you use the “Bird Rights” like they have in the NBA? Or like in the NFL, have a franchise tag? That would allow teams to retain players or if they decide to walk (like the franchise tag) they get draft picks.
*if.
NHLTR-great site,but why can we not go back and edit corrections in our comments?
@Dave – I’d be OK if the five-minute window was longer, myself. How about you?
@MacJab,you bet. You know how I feel about the cap. (NHL & NHL PA in adjoining cells,with the other holding their key.)
Sheff,my capologist,is laughing at Edmonton and Washington this morning.
@Dave – I may be one of the rare few, but I like some of your cap adjustment ideas. Unfortunately, I have zero pull with this league. :(
@MacJab,I remember being NHL Ric Flair.
@MacJab-I can’t take all the credit. My staff makes me look very good. The Leafs would spend over $26M in cap space if they followed that above plan. Money that would PAY PLAYERS their value,both resigns and FA. Why the PA doesn’t listen,I have no idea. This morning,Washington would have an extra $9.5M on their FA CC….
@Dave – No butt kissing by me here, but that sentence “Why the PA doesn’t listen,I have no idea” should be bronzed! Seriously! Where do they see a problem with that? Unless, it’s severe pushback from owners?
Is this Vegas’ way of forcing a guy to retire to save cap space? Sounds like if the trade goes through, he may retire. I don’t see why the Hawks couldn’t get a draft pick or something to do this.
Another stupid move by Vegas management.
McCrimmon has to go.
I’d rather have kept fleury and traded lehner. Guy is average
The amount of disrespect he’s received from NHL organizations in his career is unbelievable. The guy is a living legend and a first ballot hall of famer but teams keep throwing him away like he’s trash.
This hurts. One thing that is becoming a trend with Vegas is their lack of loyalty. Gallant. Signing Lenher. Now trading MAF?? Can’t wait to see Vegas get shelled this year.
At least send MAF back to Pittsburgh if you had to move him. Geeze. Not a pretty day for Vegas.
Don’t forget Colin Miller, Eric Haula, & Nate Schmidt; yes some were good moves, but still shows a complete lack of loyalty. They are the anti-Ken Holland.
Pittsburgh couldn’t remotely afford him.
If Hextall would pay a sweetener to move a contract like all of the other teams that are actually trying to win have realized they have to do in a flat cap instead of twiddling his thumbs, we could afford him.
The Pens didn’t have the picks to sweeten a deal. Unless your going to trade either Zucker or Pettersson and a the 2022 1st for a 2022 6th in return, you won’t clear enough cap space to take Fleury outright without giving up more to have someone retain cap.
We can debate whether it’s right or wrong to think about life after Crosby/Malkin/Letang and how that will/should look, but Hextall certainly has an eye on the future.
“Unless your going to trade either Zucker or Pettersson and a the 2022 1st for a 2022 6th in return, you won’t clear enough cap space to take Fleury outright without giving up more to have someone retain cap.”
Not sure it would cost that much, but if it did…YES, I absolutely trade any pick it takes to have a chance this year while I still have generational Hall of Fame players as close to their prime as linear time allows.
Hextall’s plan is evidently to be mediocre in 2021 and mediocre in 2025 instead of good in 2021 and awful in 2025 and that is beyond stupid.
@Rogueaceseries
Players don’t necessarily show loyalty either. It’s an entertainment business.
penguins cleared 7 mil in the expansion draft , so uh ya they could afford him especially if Chicago retains
Lehner couldn’t carry Fleury’s jock strap.
He won’t finish the season in net.
Now retain some salary and ship him back to Pittsburgh for some assets
I definitely enjoy observing these Vegas ‘fans’ and how they don’t understand how the NHL works.
Does anyone want to play on Chi with everything going on there right now?
Doesnt look good on Vegas. Zero loyalty to a guy who led them to the finals his first year and just won the vezina for them. I wonder if that might affect free agent decisions going forward
doesn’t every FA want to sign with a GM who acts like he’s playing NHL 21?
Fire Ron Hextall.
Can’t beat that offer?
Can’t get the one guy who might make up for and justify the bonehead moves he made in the expansion draft?
Pathetic.
Maybe MAF will save him by forcing a trade. One can hope, I guess.
“25m
Penguins caught off guard — who wasn’t? — by Marc-André Fleury trade from Vegas. Sense I get is PIT is trying to assess situation and see what’s going on now with Chicago.”
Fire Ron Hextall and flog him on his way out of the building.
This is phenomenal for Chicago if he plays. And I bet after sleeping on it, he will; I could see the temptation to retire, but I think he’s gonna realize Chicago is a great place to play and will open up opportunities for him even if he’s only a Hawk for a year.
Yes, I am sure so many want to sign up to play on a team where there are massive off ice issues happening. People are begging to be put in the middle of that storm.
The off ice stuff is concerning to say the least but it’s not going to impact him at all if he’s only there a year. And they’ll stand a pretty solid chance to make the playoffs with him in net. The positives associated with the opportunity to play in a world-class city that’s sports obsessed far outweigh whatever off-ice issues exist given that they don’t involve or affect him at all.
Can’t resist the best uniforms in sports.
You can expect that to change in the next 3-5 years tops too. It’s just another one of the off ice issues surrounding this team.
Wow. Dumping off the reigning Vezina winner and getting NOTHING for him. Obviously VGK was in cap hell and just couldn’t afford $12 million in netminders, but this is shocking.
What a stupid move again wild Bill gets his man..Lehner is their guy pls give me break..will not be in nets for 60 games next year…Vegas might get scoring but they will let alot in their net……clap clap clap…
Vegas basically got Lehner from Blackhawks/Leafs for:
2020 5th round draft choice
Goalie Subban
Forward Stanislav Demin
2020 2nd round pick
Marc Andre Fleury
They got taken.
The current coach is much to blame for this move, I don’t think Fleury was his man, same as Schmidt.
Coach is a problem on the team I’m afraid besides the so called GM.
I feel sad and angry.
mccrimmon has anyone told him this not junior where you go it for every couple years. then give away players for nothing and rebuilt.
Imagine if fleury had brandon connections he would still be there.
Only reason McCrimmon got to be GM of the Brandon was because he owned the team.
Not because he was qualified for the job and he did nothing really during his time .
What would it take for Chicago to eat half that salary and send him to Pittsburgh?
OK, forget the part where Hextall clearly has no stones and wasn’t all over VGK to get MAF as he should have been…
Why on Earth wouldn’t McCrimmon make sure the Pens knew he was being moved to get a better offer?
And the Pens can go 10% over and figure it out after you get the reigning Vezina winner in hand.
Just inexcusable the Pens allowed this to happen.
Post Gazette writer saying the Pens are not trying to get MAF.
That bonehead Hextall is going to refuse to get the fan favorite HOF REIGNING Vezina winner and sign Brian Elliot or some piece of drek to “put his stamp” on the team, isn’t he?
Screw the VGK! You just don’t crap on a player like MAF like that.
Now we have Robin Lehner, the perpetual highlight reel victim as our goalie.