Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes that Marc-Andre Fleury, the Wild’s goalie, has agreed to a one-year deal worth $2.5 million. As per PuckPedia, the contract has a complete no-move clause.
In an effort to close the distance between himself and Patrick Roy for second place on the NHL’s all-time victories record, Fleury comes back for his 21st NHL season. The Penguins selected the future Hall of Famer with the first overall choice in 2003. He joined the NHL right away, which is extremely uncommon for a goalie, and by the time the league ended the 2004–05 lockout, he was Pittsburgh’s clear favorite.
Before joining the Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft, he worked in tandem with Matt Murray for the team’s 2016 and 2017 titles, commencing on their path to a 2009 Stanley Cup victory. There, he won his first and only Vezina Trophy in 2021 and guided Vegas to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. For the sake of managing the salary cap, he was traded to the Blackhawks the next summer. At the 2022 trade deadline, he was traded to the Wild, where he has stayed ever since.
The veteran hasn’t really played at a high level since his Golden Knights days, albeit he was prone to an occasional bad season. That 2020–21 season at age 36 was very amazing. In just 36 starts during the COVID-shortened season, he recorded a career-high 1.98 GAA and.928 SV%, including six shutouts. In the next two seasons, with Chicago and Minnesota, he wasn’t poor at all, going 52-39-9 with a.908 SV% in 102 games in 2021–22 and 2022–23, but it was obvious he wasn’t ready for a starting position full-time. Consequently, during the duration of the two-year, $7 million contract he inked with Minnesota in 2022, he collaborated with the younger Filip Gustavsson.
This season, Fleury’s stats were noticeably lower. With just 35 starts—his fewest since 2016–17—the 39-year-old has a record of 17–14-5, 2.98 GAA, and.895 SV% going into tomorrow’s season-ending game against the Wild, which he is expected to start. According to MoneyPuck, he has given up 10.8 goals more than anticipated this season, which is the worst among Wild goalies and the sixth-worst in the NHL. He has never had a lower save %, even during his first few seasons with a Pens team that was rebuilding or in development.
His extension suggests that the Wild could do one of two things: either top goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt isn’t quite ready for NHL duty, or last year’s breakout star Filip Gustavsson is on the trade block after coming down to Earth in 2023–24. With two years left on his contract and a $3.75 million cap hit, Gustavsson had a.899 SV% in 43 starts and two relief appearances this season, barely surpassing Fleury’s stats. After giving up seven goals against the Stars in his NHL debut in January, Wallstedt, 21, finished his season strong, with a.908 SV% in 43 games behind a poor AHL Iowa team. This month, he stopped 51 of 53 shots in victories over the Sharks and Blackhawks.
Giving a faltering Fleury $2.5 million when he’s already stated that retirement or Minnesota were his only options for the upcoming season is a potentially dubious move on the part of General Manager Bill Guerin. With a $14.7 million dead cap hit, the team has one more season to bear the brunt of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. According to CapFriendly, the Wild’s expected cap space for the upcoming season is now down to $5.2M, despite the fact that their roster is largely full with just three spots available.
Nevertheless, Guerin would have had more leeway to sign players on the free agent market this summer if Fleury’s cap price had been lower. This would have helped Minnesota return to the postseason in 2025 after missing out on it this year. It is significantly more than that of the previous year’s comparable, all-time American wins leader Jonathan Quick, who had an uneven 2022–23 season and only made $825K plus an extra $100K in performance bonuses from the Rangers on the open market.
Still, Fleury is back with Minnesota for his third full season in what will most likely be his last NHL season. Prior to Wednesday’s contract, the Quebec native’s career earnings were estimated by CapFriendly to be $84.4 million.