Fleury was part of a four-team trade rumour before season start!

Wow! Vegas would have regretted that one!

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Fleury was part of a four-team trade rumour before season start!
Zuma Press

As you may remember, talks got quite loud during the offseason that veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury could be on the move. However, we cannot imagine the story is the same now that Fleury is 7-1-0 with a .944 save percentage in Vegas this season and might have convinced the Golden Knights to keep him in Sin City. During the postseason, his name was mentioned more than once in trade chatter in order to get the Knights under the salary cap. Trade talks intensified when Vegas signed Robin Lehner to a five-year extension at $5 million AAV : no one could imagine the Knights committing $12 million combined for two goalies.

But the team managed to do so, but that didn’t discouraged teams from asking about Fleury. According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the Penguins have tried “very hard” since the offseason to re-acquire their former three-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender. The Golden Knights turned them down on multiple occasions.

And now it’s Elliotte Friedman who reports in his latest 31 Thoughts column on Sportsnet that he would love to know more about a  four-team trade rumours that was heard during the offseason as well : 

“I don’t believe Marc-Andre Fleury is available. He’s on fire, rejuvenated. In a year where some teams can’t make it work even with four goalies, why would you move him?
Sometimes, we mistake friendliness for weakness. There’s nothing Fleury wouldn’t do to prove he’s still a No. 1 and he’s showing that now. Someday, however, I’m going to pump several GMs full of truth serum to figure out the truth behind the wild four-team rumours from the off-season.”

Everyone knows the Penguins would love him back in between the pipes in Pittsburgh. The attempts from Flower’s former team came before general manager Jim Rutherford resigned, he who was at the forefront of those talks during the offseason. Then, interim Pens GM Patrik Allvin tried as recently as “a couple of weeks” ago, but Vegas has insisted on ‘no.’ We wonder if new GM Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke will be back at it? 

Source: Sportsnet