The season might only be half over, but one of the most heartwarming moments so far too place last week in Montreal. Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc Andre Fleury had previously announced his impending retirement at the end of the season and was facing his hometown Montreal Canadiens for the final time in his career. Fleury got many ovations, including the entire Montreal team showing him congratulations after earning his shutout victory.
Fleury is a three-time Stanley Cup champion and sure to be Hall of Famer. He’s played for four teams including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vegas Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks, and aforementioned Wild.
Once Fleury hangs it up, should his jersey find a place in any of these teams’ rafters? We take a look at the three most obvious options. We did skip over the Blackhawks since Fleury only played half of a rather forgettable season with Chicago before being traded.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Fleury is greatest goaltender in Pittsburgh Penguins history. This was the team that drafted him, he won three Stanley Cups with, and spent the lion’s share of his career there. His time in Pittsburgh might not have had a storybook ending, his play being passed by then Penguin Matt Murray to the point he was left unprotected in the expansion draft to be taken by our next team, but it felt more like Fleury and the Penguins parted as friend. This is a business, after all.
Pittsburgh has only retired three numbers in their existence: Michel Briere (number 21), Mario Lemieux (number 66) and Jaromir Jagr (number 68). Jagr’s number was just retired last season, even if the commemorative bobble heads took a rather hilarious detour. It’s not entirely surprising the Pittsburgh rafters are bare.
This is a team that has seen the lowest lows and the highest highs. Some of the players responsible for its “golden era” (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Fleury) are still active players. Sorry, Penguins fans but do you really think anyone on the Penguins who wasn’t there for the early 1990’s or post 2005 Crosby era deserves the honor?
The Hockey News wrote an article last season of whose jerseys the Penguins should retire after Jagr. Fleury was on it, along with the obvious candidates of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang. Former goaltender Tom Barrasso, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee and goaltender for the Penguins early 1990’s cup championships, was given an honorable mention.
Vegas Golden Knights
For most of its existence Fleury was the face of the Vegas Golden Knights. He was their first superstar. His stellar play is widely cited as the reason they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season.
Fans loved him. Social media sensation dogs were even named after him. Fleury won the only Vezina Trophy of his career as a member of the Golden Knights after the 2020-2021 season.
That’s when things went south. Facing cap constraints Vegas put themselves into Fleury was unceremoniously traded to Chicago. We’d say he was traded for pennies on the dollar, but that would be an insult to pennies.
Who was Fleury traded for? No, we’re asking you, because we forget (just kidding, he was traded for minor league forward Mikael Hakkarainen who would never play with the team).
Fans still love Fleury and feel the franchise did him wrong (on a recent trip to Vegas an elderly blackjack dealer at the Mirage told me so and I had to explain the NHL salary cap to her, good times!) For comparison, the Orlando Magic retired Shaquille O’Neal’s number last season. Shaq had spent roughly the same amount of time with Orlando before leaving in free agency, also not under the necessarily best of terms.
Yes, it’s a different league and a star player. If you can make a case for Orlando retiring Shaq’s number you can more than make the case for Fleury in Vegas. The only number ever retired by the franchise was 58, in honor of the 58 victims of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting during the Golden Knights inaugural season.
Minnesota Wild
The case is a little more difficult to make for the Wild. Fleury came to Minnesota Wild as a beloved veteran in the twilight of his career. He did come to a team with playoff aspirations and has performed admirably. It’s not as if he’s an old head riding the bench like some other older goaltenders might do.
What is missing from Fleury’s Minnesota resume is two things: longevity and playoff success. Fleury’s only for roughly three and a half seasons. That’s comparable to his time in Vegas, but he gets extra points for being on a franchise being built from the ground up as well as making it to the Stanley Cup Final.
For now, Fleury is just a delightful chapter in the Wild’s short-ish history but that’s not enough to retire his jersey. Maybe If Kirril Kaprisov comes back guns a balazing and they make a lengthy playoff run, maybe even reaching the first cup final in team history that will change. For now it seems like the only retired numbers in Wild history, number one for “the fans” and number 9 for Mikko Koivu, will still be waiting for a third jersey to join them.