Fleury on the cusp of incredible career milestone, which he is expected to accomplish this season
After Patrice Bergeron's recent retirement, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury seems to be one of the few ageless wonders remaining in the NHL today.
Entering his 3rd season with the Minnesota Wild and 20th of his career, Fleury is only 7 wins away from tying Patrick Roy for 2nd on the all-time list for victories and 8 away from passing the Hall-of-Fame goaltender for sole possession of 2nd all-time. Fleury currently sits with 544 victories, Roy has 551, and Martin Brodeur sits atop the list with a remarkable and improbable to catch 691 victories.
Fleury spent the first 13 years of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being drafted with the 1st overall selection in 2003. He went 375-216-68 with the Penguins before becoming the face of the newly-minted Vegas Golden Knights. He sported a 117-60-40 record with the Golden Knights.
Controversy struck yet again and he ultimately became the odd-man out in Vegas as he found himself on the re-tooling Chicago Blackhawks in the summer of 2021. He went 19-21-5 for a struggling Hawks team but they decided to do things right for the veteran as they traded him to Minnesota at the trade deadline. He's gone 33-18-4 in parts of 2 seasons and after all that has been said and done throughout his career, he is only the third to ever win 500+ games.
While Fleury is no longer the prototypical bell-cow in terms of games played since he is sharing the twine alongside the very talented Filip Gustavsson, the Wild are in great hands heading into a very important 2023-24 season. A 1A/1B situation is likely on our hands again with Fleury giving way to Gustavsson a little bit more often this year than last.
He should be firmly in 2nd place quite early in the season and one has to imagine that it's going to take a very long time for anyone to usurp him with how goaltenders are trending in the modern NHL. Among active leaders, Jonathan Quick's 375, Sergei Bobrovksy's 360, and Craig Anderson's 319 are the closest to Fleury's 544.
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| POLL | ||
AOUT 11 | 245 ANSWERS Fleury on the cusp of incredible career milestone, which he is expected to accomplish this season Will Marc-Andre Fleury surpass Patrick Roy's 551 career wins before Christmas? | ||
| Yes | 103 | 42 % |
| No | 92 | 37.6 % |
| Don't care | 50 | 20.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
