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.
LMFAO!
Great goalie, better guy.
Almost universally known as the best teammate ever.
It was the right decision by almost every available metric at the time, but I’d love to see an alternate universe where we trade Murray and keep Marc instead. I bet we’d have won more than one playoff round.
Congrats Flower. One of the all-time best.
Yikes!!! $2.5 million for a guy who:
will be 40 years old next season.
ranks 38th in goals-against avg this season.
ranks 51st in save % this season.
has already said it was either Minnie or retirement because his kids are in school.
Does he have compromising photos of someone in the front office?
Fleury needs a new nickname, How about weeds, Red light, .895.
Team has no intention to compete next year. Get past the Parise/Suter debacle and then hit a hard reset/rebuild.
Seems unlikely, but, with only one year left of the buyout mess, why not start your rebuild now? You have a few valuable assets and veterans just looking to stay in the nhl come cheap. You aren’t likely to make the playoffs next year anyways.