Marc-Andre Fleury Wants to Help Wild Make Playoffs, Unlikely to Waive No-Move Clause
Playoff contenders can likely scratch Marc-Andre Fleury’s name off their target list as it appears the Minnesota Wild netminder will stay put beyond the March 8th trade deadline.
Fleury, a free agent after this season, would undoubtedly garner plenty of interest league-wide if he were open to a trade, given he’s a three-time Stanley Cup champion and is enjoying a respectable 20th NHL season – his third with the Wild.
But so far, the 39-year-old – sporting a 2.92 GAA, .899 SV% and one shutout across 28 games this season – is focused on Minnesota’s surging playoff hunt, with the team only four points back of the final wild-card seed. As such, he isn’t contemplating jumping ship elsewhere before next month’s deadline.
“If we were last in the conference, maybe it’d be a little bit different,” Fleury told The Athletic’s Joe Smith on Saturday. “But this is my team. We’ve been battling together, right? I take pride in winning with this team. I want us to make the playoffs. That’s my first priority.”
“I think being in the hunt, it’s fun, it’s challenging. And I want to be here and see this team make the playoffs.”
For any deal to transpire, Fleury would have to waive his full no-move clause, which appears unlikely to occur. Previously, president and general manager Bill Guerin has said the veteran goaltender will have the final say if he’s moved prior to March 8th.
The Wild piled up wins recently, earning victories in seven of their last nine games to improve to 28-24-6 on the season. And their future Hall-of-Fame netminder is among those responsible for this run, which has the franchise back into contention amidst what’s been a trying 2023-24 campaign.
After returning from an upper-body injury post-All-Star break, Fleury has won four of his last five starts, allowing two goals or fewer in all but one contest. On Saturday, he completed a 30-save victory against the Seattle Kraken as Minnesota improved to 7-2-1 over its previous 10.
“I don’t want to just quit, right?” Fleury said. “I like this. I like the guys. It’s a great bunch of guys. When you’re so close, you want to do it all for each other. It’s been fun lately winning a bit more too.”
The Wild’s postseason odds currently sit at a measly 24.6 percent entering Monday’s slate, per MoneyPuck, putting them in a tough spot with only 24 games remaining.
Making the playoffs hasn’t been an issue for this franchise, at least in this era, as they’ve advanced past the regular season in four consecutive seasons and have achieved that feat in 10 of the previous 11. But they haven’t travelled past the opening round since 2015.
It’s unlikely the Wild emerge as sellers with less than two weeks until the trade deadline, especially if Fleury – their most prominent potential trade chip, whose $3.5-million cap hit would be appealing to any team seeking an upgrade in net – is off the market.
Many believe this could be Fleury’s final NHL season, a campaign in which he surpassed New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy (551) for second all-time in wins among goaltenders, with 556 and counting.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Michael Miller. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.