Man, Myth, Flower: The Marc-Andre Fleury retrospective
In the near future, Marc-Andre Fleury will say goodbye.
The Quebec-born ‘Flower’ is the last remaining goaltending link to the pre-lockout NHL. Fleury debuted before the salary cap. Before shootouts. Before Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin. In an NHL with two-line passes and legal head shots. An 18-year-old kid in bright yellow pads. Only a few months after being drafted first overall by Pittsburgh. On a team captained by Mario Lemieux, who turns 60 this autumn.
The well-travelled goaltender has lived the fullest of hockey lives. As Fleury’s career passes into hockey’s afterlife, this should be a celebration of life — not a funeral. He made the big saves. He let in the big goals. He raised the big, silver trophy (three times). And he experienced heartbreak.
Fleury has been called every ugly name in the book on his likely journey to the Hall of Fame — overrated, lucky, choker. And yet his character has never been questioned, nor has his irrepressible light ever dimmed.
With the sun setting soon on Fleury’s long and distinguished career, we’re exploring his unique and complicated legacy in three parts: the man, the myth, and the legend of Flower.
🌸 Man
“Over the years, I probably don’t have to tell you, it’s been ups and downs. But one thing I will carry with me, long after I leave Pittsburgh — honestly, long after my playing career is over — is how amazing and strong the support was that I received from the fans.”
— Marc-Andre Fleury, June 2017
Lots has to go right to play the second-most games (1,048) by a goalie in NHL history. Fleury’s played more than tireless warriors Terry Sawchuk or Ed Belfour. Even more has to go right to win the second-most games (573) in NHL history. Fleury’s won more times than goaltending royalty Patrick Roy and Jacques Plante.
Given Fleury was a first-overall draft choice who enjoyed near perfect health for more than two decades, you’d think he had it easy. It never was.
Goaltenders Drafted in Top Five, Last 50 Years
| Year | Player | Team | Pick | Career Games |
| 2005 | Carey Price | Montreal | 5th | 712 |
| 2003 | Marc-Andre Fleury | Pittsburgh | 1st | 1,048 |
| 2002 | Kari Lehtonen | Atlanta | 2nd | 649 |
| 2000 | Rick DiPietro | NY Islanders | 1st | 318 |
| 1997 | Roberto Luongo | NY Islanders | 4th | 1,044 |
| 1983 | Tom Barrasso | Buffalo | 5th | 777 |
The immense pressure began early. The world was introduced to Fleury as a happy-go-lucky teenager guarding Canada’s crease on teams that lost consecutive World Junior Championship finals (2003, 2004). He won Tournament MVP in 2003, yet his untimely blunder firing a puck off teammate Braydon Coburn in 2004 felt etched in junior hockey lore.
The lockout came at a perfect time for Fleury’s development. Instead of getting further peppered on a bottom feeder, Fleury would spend his 20-year-old season building confidence in AHL Wilkes-Barre. Within two years, Pittsburgh was a juggernaut-in-waiting. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Kris Letang arrived. Fleury now had a home, budding lifelong friendships, and a team with realistic visions of a dynasty.
Goalies are often serious, strange, aloof, or difficult. Fleury was none of those things. He radiated joy.
Fleury gladly played the jester, the endearing class clown of a group low on experience and high on expectations. His mischievous grin — wider than the Zamboni doors — was a fixture in the Penguins’ coming-of-age story. Instrumental in their 2008 Stanley Cup Final loss to Detroit, Fleury would bend but not break in the sequel, his sprawling save on Nicklas Lidstrom sealing Pittsburgh’s first title in 17 years.
This Flower was in full bloom. But it wouldn’t all be smiles, wins, and locker room pranks.
🌸 Myth
“Maybe this abysmal, all-time-historically-bad performance against the Flyers will dispel the belief that Fleury has been — at any point aside from one spring four years ago — something he’s not. Namely: Good in the playoffs.”
— Yahoo! Sports, April 2012
The Numbers
Despite his place as a beloved, cohesive glue guy, the inescapable part of Fleury’s story is that of a divisive talent. Just how good was Fleury as a puck stopper? It’s the sole job of a goaltender, after all.
Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) tells us how many goals Fleury saved (positive) or allowed (negative) versus what we’d expect of an average NHL goalie on the same volume and quality of shots. Using the Money Puck version — adjusting league average to zero — here’s Fleury’s performance by season.
From the above chart, consider an individual season as follows:
- +25 or more GSAx: Vezina candidate
- +15 to +25 GSAx: Excellent
- +5 to +15 GSAx: Solid
- -5 to +5 GSAx: Average
- -5 to -15 GSAx: Mediocre
- -15 or more GSAx: Not NHL goaltending
Among Fleury’s 21 seasons, that’s: 3 excellent seasons; 2 solid seasons; 12 average seasons; 3 mediocre seasons, and 1 very bad season. It matches his long-held reputation of a legitimate No. 1 goalie but seldom an elite one. Overall, Fleury saved about 30 pucks more than expected. Of the 48 goalies who played 400 games spanning his career, that ranks just 27th — between Cam Talbot and Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Vezina
After a 36-start campaign in the NHL’s pandemic return, Fleury won the Vezina Trophy in the shortened 2021 season. An award that’s been voted on by general managers since 1981, it famously leans toward workhorses on good teams that compile wins. Despite hitting those criteria most years, Fleury got little Vezina love.
- In 21 seasons, Fleury earned Vezina votes only five times.
- Outside of the year he won, he was never a finalist.
- He’s just 27th in award share (0.85) since the voting began — behind Ben Bishop and Pete Peeters.
Reputationally, Fleury was often considered a product of his teams, not the other way around.
The Playoffs
Six years of playoff disappointment followed that 2009 Stanley Cup. Fleury was often labeled the issue — graffiti on the Penguins’ Picassos. And in those post-seasons, his play was a problem. From 2010 through 2015, only 17 of his 48 post-season starts were considered Quality Starts (those with a save percentage above league average). Teams don’t win many playoff rounds with that goaltending.
Fleury, battling a concussion at the start of the playoffs, lost the cage to 22-year-old Matt Murray in the 2016 title run. A year later, after a Game 7 shutout of the rival Capitals in Round 2 and nine post-season wins, Fleury would again find himself on the bench as the clock expired on a Cup-winning run. Already a cherished teammate, Fleury’s class amidst relegation to back-up status further humanized him to the public.
The inevitable soon followed as Fleury lifted his no-movement clause to become expansion Vegas’ first goaltender. He’d been discarded for a younger, cheaper model — and it hurt. Within days of that third Cup, Fleury was awkwardly smiling in a gray and gold jersey of a curious new franchise. Resilient as ever, he’d go 13-7 that spring, improbably leading Vegas to his fifth Cup Final on its maiden playoff NHL voyage.
🌸 Flower
“It took me a lot not to cry, because it’s so much. You realize the legend that he is, and his last game at home, in front of all the people that he loves, and all the fans that love him, it’s unbelievable. It’s bigger than any words that I can say. That’s hockey at the purest. It’s beautiful. It’s poetry.”
— Frederick Gaudreau, January 2025
If Fleury’s statistical record is average, his Vezina consideration vanilla, his playoff performance wildly inconsistent, why is it that he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame?
Goaltenders simply don’t last from 18 until 40 years old. It’s not a thing. There’s no third or fourth line, or power play time, or sheltered minutes for goalies. There are only 64 of them in the league at once. There can be no charity cases and bad goalies don’t sell tickets or create intrigue.
Fleury appeared in at least 30 games for 18 consecutive seasons. That’s with a lockout, two pandemic-shortened years, and two decades of younger talent looking to steal the crease.
Presented more positively, Fleury:
- Endured at the highest level for 21 seasons. Only Martin Brodeur (22) lasted longer.
- Won a Vezina — at age 36.
- Won 573 games (and counting), including 30 on nine occasions.
- Won post-season games for teams that played in five Stanley Cup Finals — in the last 40 years, only Roy and Martin Brodeur can say that.
- Survived it all and retired the league’s most beloved goaltender.
So, no, Fleury’s legacy shouldn’t be complicated. He earned too many starts, won too many games, and delivered too much joy to fall short of the Hall of Fame. Is he a compiler? That is, a player’s whose overwhelming career totals mask the fact they rarely played at the highest level.
Of course. But that’s long been a feature of an inclusive Hall of Fame.
By PPS, my Hockey Hall of Fame worthiness metric, Fleury’s score is 309. The standard for a post-expansion Hall of Fame goaltender is 295. He exceeds the standard by +14 and will likely inch from the Borderline tier to the Qualified tier this year. And he’ll do it exactly as you’d expect. Fleury’s Peak score (his seven best seasons) rank 58th all-time. His Pace score — by virtue of playing so long — is 106th. But his Career score ranks 8th — ahead of Belfour, Henrik Lundqvist, and nearly tied with Glenn Hall. Fleury’s 169 playoff caps and call it 1.5 Stanley Cups as a starter further boost his score.
Despite his frenetic movements, Fleury exceeds the standard as the tortoise — not the hare.
If telling the NHL’s story of the last quarter century, Fleury is irrefutably central. The two World Junior finals. The #1 overall draft pick. The back-to-back Cup Finals at 23 and 24. The Cup-winning save. The dynamic, must-watch showmanship. The playoff flops. The gracious understudy on two more champions. The first face of the Golden Knights. Taking an expansion team to the brink of a Cup. The late-career Vezina. Passing 1,000 games. Passing Patrick Roy in wins. Tying Grant Fuhr for third-most playoff wins (92). The pain. The love. The ovations across the league reserved for very few.
Happy trails to Flower, a unique, acrobatic, selfless, breath of fresh air who endured, won a lot, and left an indelible mark on the game. The last words go to Fleury’s late father, Andre, inscribed on his son’s mask in French. He took his father’s advice and we’re all better for it.
“Keep your eye on it.
You practice as you play.
Have fun.”
— Pa
Visit adjustedhockey.com; data from Hockey-Reference