Minnesota Wild’s Marc-Andre Fleury confirms 2024-25 season will be his last

The Minnesota Wild signed Marc-Andre Fleury to a one-year contract extension back in April and Fleury has come out and confirmed, next season will indeed be his last.

The 39-year-old netminder has enjoyed an extremely successful career, which has included stops with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vegas Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks and the past two and a half seasons with the Wild. Fleury enters his final NHL season with an impressive career record of 561-330-96, along with a .912 save percentage through his 1025 appearances.

Fleury is a three-time Stanley Cup champion during his time with the Penguins, after being selected first overall at the 2003 NHL Draft. He’d go on to win the Vezina trophy as the league’s top goaltender in 2021 with the Golden Knights and due to salary cap implications the following season, was quickly moved by Vegas to Chicago where he’d play 45 games in 2021-22. The Wild then traded for him in March of 2022.

Fleury’s last contract does have a full no-movement clause, so depending on how the Wild fair throughout the early stages of the 2024-25 season, there could be some brewing speculation of where ‘The Flower’ ends up hanging up his skates. Ride it out in Minnesota or chase one more Stanley Cup? Certainly to be determined at this point.

The Sorel, QC native turns 40 years old in November and currently sits 2nd all-time in wins, 130 behind Martin Brodeur. He also ranks 22nd all-time in goaltender points, with 22 career assists. Regardless of how his final season plays out, Fleury will go down as one of the ‘nice guys’ of the NHL. He was beloved in every city he played in, was passionate within the communities, his teammates love him – even though his pranks can get out of hand sometimes, and Fleury has always been great dealing with the media. The NHL is truly losing one of their good guys.

Fleury is expected to play a mentorship role in Minnesota throughout his final season, as top prospect Jesper Wallstedt is expected to see a significant boost in playing time and will get a chance to learn from one of the all-time greats and a future hall-of-famer.