According to the latest NHL trade rumors, Marc-Andre Fleury’s days with the Vegas Golden Knights are likely over. Which teams should trade for him?
This offseason will have a pretty fascinating goaltending market. Not only are guys like Braden Holtby, Anton Khudobin, and Cam Talbot hitting free agency, the trade market has some pretty fascinating names on it as well. According to the latest NHL trade rumors, that list includes Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights.
According to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, the Golden Knights are expected to agree to a five-year deal with goaltender Robin Lehner.
They acquired him at the trade deadline and he was an immediate fit in Sin City. Assuming they sign Lehner, Marc-Andre Fleury is most likely getting traded or bought out.
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Fleury has two years left on his contract. With a $7 million cap hit, trading him likely won’t be easy. But the Golden Knights need to clear some cap space and Fleury’s a surplus player at this point, especially if the Golden Knights re-sign Lehner. It might make sense for the Montreal Canadiens to spend over $11 million on their goaltending, but it doesn’t for Vegas, given their cap situation.
With many teams losing quite a bit of money thanks to the pandemic, trading Fleury’s going to be even more difficult than usual. However, these three teams should give Vegas a call.
3. Vancouver Canucks
First of all, for this to work, Fleury would have to agree to be traded to the Vancouver Canucks if the Sens are on his 10-team no-trade list. Secondly, many times, teams prefer not to trade players like Fleury to a division rival. But I believe the Golden Knights will trade him to Vancouver if that’s where he wants to go.
Vegas would have to retain about 50% of Fleury’s cap hit. $7 million is a bit rich for Vancouver, but $3.5 million is far more palatable. He’d be a perfect backup for Thatcher Demko, who will likely be entering the 2020-21 season as the Canucks starting goalie. The Canucks could probably find a cheaper option in free agency, but they’re not finding one with Fleury’s track record. They’re a bit of an outside the box fit, but I could see it happening.