Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is finishing up his final, Hockey-Hall-of-Fame NHL career this year. And in this cover story from THN's 2024 Goalie Issue, writer Ken Campbell penned a deep-dive feature on the way he's authoring his exit from the game's best league:
FINAL FLEURY
By Ken Campbell
It's the not knowing that’s the worst part. Yeah, it’s definitely the not knowing. Welcome to the hellscape that is Marc-Andre Fleury’s final season in the NHL. His teammates, both present and past, are operating on the assumption that they’ll have to spend the 2024-25 season on constant high alert. I mean, look what Fleury did to Brandon Duhaime last year, and all the poor guy did was toilet-paper Fleury’s car and joke during a television interview that Fleury was doing impressive things at the age of 50. Next thing you know, Duhaime’s tires are removed and chained together in the parking garage, his car is on cinder blocks, and there’s a small garden on his hood.
‘The Kid’ has to be crapping his pants right about now. All Sidney Crosby did was fill Fleury’s gear with gum one time, and then he shows up at the NHL Media Tour two years ago and all his equipment is hanging in his stall taped together. You see, they know Fleury could strike at any time, but they don’t know when or how. If they’ve wronged him in any way, they can be pretty sure he’s going to use an XL18 flamethrower to wipe out an ant hill. And after everything Fleury has done in the 21 years he’s been in the NHL, he has to have one epic, all-time, go-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory, Lloyd-Christmas-level prank in him, right?
“To be honest, I haven’t thought much about it,” Fleury said, “but now that you mention it…”
See what we mean? How can anyone trust that? For his part, Fleury maintains that, “I’m pretty sure all the scores have been settled,” brilliantly capped by the demented chef’s kiss that was the Duhaime prank last April in Colorado, with Fleury waiting in the background and giggling.
As Fleury embarks on the final season of an NHL career that will undoubtedly result in a call to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2028, it will be about what it has always been about – competing against the best players in the world and trying to beat them in every outing. But as he makes his way through the league one last time, he’ll allow himself to take it all in, to soak up the memories he has created over the years.
And beneath it all will be a deep sense of gratitude for everything the game has given him the past two decades. During the season, everything happens so quickly, and you might spend a day or two in St. Louis and move on to the next place, all on autopilot. Fleury doesn’t want that in his last go-round. He wants it to also be a time of reflection. About what he has done, what he has and how incredibly fortunate he has been to make a living out of playing hockey. “Maybe take a few more minutes in every building, to take the time to appreciate that I’m still doing this,” Fleury said. “There will be memories. All those memories in all those buildings.”
They go all the way back to 2003, considered one of the strongest draft crops ever, when the Pittsburgh Penguins traded up to take Fleury first overall. If he appears in 20 games this season, he’ll eclipse Roberto Luongo for second place on the all-time games-played list behind Martin Brodeur. His fifth game will move him past Patrick Roy, who he eclipsed for second on the all-time wins list, also behind Brodeur, last season.
Brodeur, Fleury, Roy and Luongo account for the top four spots. (Remember when Quebec used to be a goalie factory?) The fifth time Fleury starts a game for the Wild this season, he will register his 1,000th career start. With the retirements of Joe Pavelski and Jeff Carter in the summer, that leaves only Fleury, Brent Burns, Corey Perry and Ryan Suter still playing from that 2003 draft. (Fun fact: Fleury’s 22 career assists have him tied for 69th in NHL scoring – with Paul Bissonnette and others – among the 292 players drafted that year.)
Three Stanley Cups, with the first one coming on one of the most clutch saves in NHL history, an unlikely Vezina Trophy late in his career, a trip to the Cup final with ‘The Golden Misfits’ and an unblemished off- and on-ice reputation have Fleury breathing the rarefied air among some of the most respected players in the game.
He has had bad days, to be sure, but it’s difficult to tell since Fleury spends most of the time showing off the whitest and straightest teeth in NHL history. He brings joy to every crease and every dressing room he steps into, and it will continue to be that way as he tries to get in the path of as many pucks as he can in his last season.
Of course, he has some of the big games circled on his calendar, or at least digitally bookmarked. Oct. 29 in Pittsburgh, man, that’s going to be a tear-jerker. Jan. 12 in Vegas, too. The games in Montreal are always special, and the Wild will be there Jan. 30. Even Chicago, where Fleury played part of one season, will give him the feels when he visits there Nov. 10 and Jan. 26. And in late November, Fleury will celebrate his 40th birthday, making him one of only 25 goalies – 23 if you throw out one-game wonders Lester Patrick and David Ayres – to play an NHL game after their 40th birthday. Of that group, 12 are in the Hall of Fame, and Fleury will join them there.
But before all that can happen, there is a rather crowded Wild crease situation to be sorted out. To be fair, goaltending was a bit of a black hole for Minnesota in 2023-24, with Fleury posting just 17 wins and the worst save percentage of his career (.895). Filip Gustavsson followed up a brilliant 2022-23 with an equally disastrous ’23-24. The wild card is Jesper Wallstedt, a first-round pick of the Wild in 2021 and the franchise’s goalie of the future. After two solid but unspectacular seasons in the AHL, the feeling is Wallstedt, who turns 22 two weeks before Fleury hits 40, could be ready for NHL work. The consensus is Gustavsson is probably on the least stable ground, but there’s no sense trying to untangle this thing too early, because who knows with goalies from one year to the next, anyway?
One thing both the Wild and Fleury are adamant about is that this will not be The Marc-Andre Fleury Farewell Tour, where they keep trotting out a 40-year-old just for the sake of having him wave to the crowd after the game. If you had to describe the Wild in one word – and this goes for almost every season they’ve been in the league – it would probably be “meh.” Not terrible. Not great. Kind of in the mushy middle, and not likely to be able to really build themselves into a contender until they shed the $14.7 million in salary retention on the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts after this season. If one of the Wild goalies grabs the crease and pulls a Devan Dubnyk circa 2015, he’ll be the one who plays. The Wild missed the playoffs last year and haven’t advanced past the first round in a decade. They were in the bottom half of the league in goals against and lost nine overtime games last season. Improved goaltending will have to be part of the equation if the Wild hope to return to the post-season, with or without Fleury in goal.
“It will be business as usual because that’s what ‘Flower’ wants,” said Wild GM Bill Guerin. “He doesn’t want any of that stuff. He’s never wanted it. We want to have a good year. We want to make the playoffs. This is not a farewell tour. This is about him still being a good player in the league and being competitive as hell.”
That’s what it is all about for Fleury, too. Behind the effulgent smile, calm exterior and pleasant demeanor is a guy who hates losing almost as much as he loves winning. Anyone who has played with or dealt with Fleury will attest to the fact that from the time he first appeared wearing braces in THN’s 2003 Draft Preview issue, the competitive fires have burned hot and bright. You don’t last in the NHL for as long as Fleury has without an unyielding desire to win. “It’s probably stronger than ever,” said Fleury of his will to win. “That feeling you get when you play against the best players in the world and win against them, there’s nothing like it. And then you want to win again, and then you want to win again.”
Nine years ago, the Penguins were playing a pre-season game at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena to commemorate Johnstown, Pa., winning the Kraft Hockeyville contest. The fictional home of the Charlestown Chiefs of Slap Shot fame, the city leans big-time into its cinematic lore. A marketing genius with the Penguins came up with the idea for Fleury and local broadcaster Dan Potash to play Denis Lemieux and Jim Carr and recreate the opening scene of the movie. Fleury nails Lemieux’s words and mannerisms almost as well as Yvon Barrette did in the movie, not even cracking a smile when he talks about how, “you go to the box, two minutes by yourself and you feel shame. And then you get free.”
You can probably count on one hand, with a finger or two left over, the number of players who would agree to do something like that, particularly in this day and age. But it was classic Fleury, a guy who isn’t afraid to put himself out there and doesn’t take himself too seriously. It’s all part of the sheer joy he has playing the game, and it’s why nobody in the hockey world seems to have a disparaging word to say about him. Former Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, who has been around the game for more than a half-century, once referred to Fleury as, “the best team player in sports,” for good reason.
And that is why teams will almost certainly line up to hire Fleury if he decides he wants a future in the game. The plan for now is to spend the winters and school years in Vegas, where he has built a home, and the summers in suburban Montreal. If he can find a way to make hockey work while he puts his family first, there might be a fit. He’d like to play a little beer-league hockey, but not as a goalie, because every goalie who ever lived has this notion that he’s also a great position player. “I like the idea of trying to make plays and score and dangle the stick, skate around, get a good sweat,” Fleury said. “And just to sit on the bench and have somebody to talk to. That would be fun.”
But Fleury is adamant that, at least for the first couple of years after his retirement, his family will be the top priority. He’s missed too many Christmas pageants, Halloweens and birthdays over the years, and he wants to be there for those. He wants to watch his daughters, 11-year-old Estelle and nine-year-old Scarlett, play soccer. Five-year-old James is just beginning his hockey journey, and Fleury is looking forward to where that will take him. “He just learned to skate last year, but for the games, he always wants to go back into the net,” Fleury said. “I’m like, ‘Go score some goals.’ ”
Fleury hasn’t thought much about his post-playing life, but if he were to stay involved in the game, it would probably be at the management level. And that makes sense for a guy who has made a career building relationships. If he needs a roadmap, he need look no further than his former teammate and boss, who took a year off after he retired, then joined Pittsburgh’s front office, first as a development coach, then assistant GM. When Guerin went to see then-GM Ray Shero about a job, Shero told him his biggest nightmare was having to give jobs to former players who wanted the title, the office and the paycheque but weren’t willing to travel to Grand Rapids to watch the farm team.
“Let’s see how hard he wants to work,” said Guerin of Fleury’s post-playing prospects. “Being in hockey operations is not easy, and it’s not the glamorous life people think it is. But, that being said, he has everything it would take to be successful. ‘Flower’ is smart, he’s charismatic, and he’s got great relationships around the league. There’s no reason he couldn’t have success on the other side. He’s got all the intangibles and the ingredients of a guy who could do it.”
Until then, Fleury will make sure to enjoy the last leg of his playing journey. On the exterior, it doesn’t look as though Fleury has aged all that much over the years. Sure, he no longer tints his hair, but really, who does that anymore? He’s still in outstanding physical shape. And even he marvels at the fact that time has gone by so quickly.
Like every other player who retires, he’ll miss the games and his teammates in the dressing room, but not so much the grind it requires in the summer to prepare for the next season. Nor will he miss waking up with at least one part of his body hurting, which has been the case for the past couple of seasons. He won’t hike his pants up to his chest and complain that he seems to be busier in retirement than when he was working, because he doesn’t plan on replacing the chaos of playing in the NHL with doing something else at a chaotic pace. He acknowledges he doesn’t know much of anything about the hockey-ops side of the game, and the ability to play at the highest level doesn’t translate into an ability to build a team as much as people think.
Once the puck drops, for Fleury, it will be all about winning games and capturing all the great things about playing and hanging on to them. He still can’t believe playing hockey is a job that will have paid him almost $100 million by the time his career ends. All he wanted to do as a teenager was play one game in the NHL, and he’s played more than a thousand. Regardless of how this season ends, he’ll leave the game with no regrets. “I know I’m on my last miles here,” Fleury said. “I love the feeling, and I want to enjoy it as long as I can as much as I can while I can.”
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