All signs were pointing to Marc-Andre Fleruy getting traded over the 2020 offseason. The Golden Knights inked Robin Lehner to a five-year extension and at 36 with only so much hockey left, Fleury probably could have spent the last years of his career with another team. But owner Bill Foley elected to keep his tendy and the decision has paid off, as Fleury is putting up Vezina caliber stats with an 8-3-0 record, 1.55 GAA and .942 save percentage while Lehner recovers from an upper-body injury.
Back to the offseason. Foley finally addressed whether he considered trading the Flower and although there were discussions, the trades sent his way apparently ‘didn’t make any sense’ and he never came close to actually trading his goaltender.
Foley also recalled telling Fleury he wanted him to retire a Golden Knight during year one of the franchise:
Well, that clears that out of the way! Doesn’t look like Fleury was close to going anywhere and it definitely worked out well for Vegas, especially in this wild shortened season.
We also just want to remind you all that Fleury is literally the biggest beauty of all time and has been a fan favourite in Vegas since day 1. How many players would go out of their way to personally deliver an autographed jersey, even when they didn’t have to?
Fleury has one more year left on his contract at $7 million, so it will be interesting to see if a team will make a more aggressive push or if Foley would even consider trading his netminder. Pretty solid move to hold onto him, nice call Bill!
(H/T Jesse Granger)
