When a young netminder from Sorel, Quebec made his NHL debut on Oct. 10, 2003, it’s difficult to imagine that folks in Pittsburgh, Pa. knew what was in store for the next decade and a half.
Marc-Andre Fleury allowed just two goals on 48 shots that day against the Los Angeles Kings, which was a 3-0 loss for his Pittsburgh Penguins. The 18-year-old was selected first overall by Pittsburgh just a few months prior, and it was his first taste of hockey at the highest level as well as everyone’s first taste of “Flower.”
Fast forward about 15 years, and Fleury – along with the core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang – helped lead the Penguins to three Stanley Cup championships. In those last two runs – back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017 – Fleury did help his team win a few playoff series, but there was another young, up-and-coming goaltender in Matt Murray who was beginning to supplant Fleury as the team’s starting goaltender.
Knowing and understanding the situation at hand, Fleury departed the Penguins for the 2017 expansion draft, becoming the face of the new Vegas Golden Knights franchise and its first draftee. He did win a Vezina Trophy with the Knights in 2020-21, and he ventured onward to the Chicago Blackhawks and then to the Minnesota Wild, where he spent the final three-plus seasons of his NHL career.
Even though he had strayed – and saying goodbye to Pittsburgh was hard for him and his longtime teammates – there was always some degree of inevitability when it came to Fleury reuniting with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
And that all manifested on Friday when he signed a professional tryout (PTO) contract with the Penguins so that he would be able to retire in Pittsburgh black and gold.
Penguins Sign Marc-Andre Fleury To Professional Tryout Contract
Pittsburgh Penguins fans are getting their wish to see Marc-Andre Fleury one more time in Pittsburgh.
It’s no secret that there were some tough times with Fleury and the Penguins near the end of his tenure with the team. Prior to the back-to-back runs, the Penguins were mired in a stretch of lackluster post-season appearances and faltering expectations, and goaltending was certainly a part of that. The emergence of Murray resulted in young, fresh blood between the pipes, which is what the Penguins needed at the time – regardless of how difficult it would be to, potentially, say goodbye to a franchise legend.
And – if we’re being honest – it was always going to come to that if a younger successor to Fleury ever came about. It wasn’t fair to the goaltender who had given so much to the Penguins’ organization – and to the city – to play second-fiddle to a 20-year-old rookie when, at 32, he was still capable of playing some high-level hockey in the blue paint.
At the time, Fleury and the Penguins simply weren’t on the same page anymore, and moving on was the right thing to do, no matter how painful. Fleury deserved to start somewhere, and that wasn’t going to happen in Pittsburgh any longer.
But, somehow, everyone always knew that he would make his way back east someday. There was simply too much history, too much brotherhood, and too much mutual love and respect to ignore. Pittsburgh missed Fleury as much as Fleury missed Pittsburgh, and given his illustrious NHL career, he deserved to go out on his terms when he made the decision to hang up the skates at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.
And his terms included skating one last time with the team that drafted him. The team that trusted him to be their franchise backstop for more than a decade. The team that molded him, won with him, fought alongside him. The team and the city that he called home for a large part of his life as an NHL player.
The Penguins mean something to Fleury, and the second-winningest goaltender in NHL history means something to the Penguins. There is – as ‘Swifties’ would say – an invisible string between the two entities, and it’s an indestructible bond that has stood the test of time.
Penguins Release 2025 Training Camp Schedule
At long last, hockey season is back.
Fleury will hit the ice twice more in a Penguins’ uniform. The first will be during team practice at training camp on Sept. 26, and the second will be in a pre-season game in Pittsburgh against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sept. 27.
In case you’re wondering, tickets are already going for – at minimum – $311.00 on StubHub. And that price continues to rise. People are eager to give the greatest goaltender in franchise history – and one of the greatest to ever do it – the best possible sendoff as he rides into the sunset.
And he’ll be riding into that sunset on the Fort Pitt Bridge, departing the city that he loves. Just as it should be, and just how it was always meant to be.
Fleury Returning To The Penguins Is A Perfect Finale
Veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said that the 2024-25 season would be the last of what is surely a Hockey Hall of Fame career. So it came as somewhat of a pleasant surprise Friday when it was announced Fleury was signing a professional tryout offer with the Pittsburgh Penguins – the team with which he won three Stanley Cup championships.
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