Chicago Blackhawks: Marc-Andre Fleury trade is incredible news

Marc-Andre Fleury is one of the nicest human beings in the history of the National Hockey League. He is also one of the greatest goalies in the history of the NHL as well. He is a three-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins and has had a tremendous amount of success with the Vegas Golden Knights as well. In 2020-21, he was so good that he won the Vezina Trophy and now he is on his way to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Hawks sent a Minor League player named Mikael Hakkarainen to the Golden Knights to get Fleury back. If you are wondering why Vegas would do this, it is a fair question. They want to move on from Fleury so they can commit to Robin Lehner full-time and create more cap room for other areas. It is hard to win in the NHL with two goalies making that much money.

For that reason, it is smart for the Hawks to take on Fleury for one year. In 2020-21, his Vezina Trophy was earned thanks to his 26-10-0 record, 1.98 goals against average, and .928 save percentage. Splitting time with Kevin Lankinen will give the Hawks one of the best goalie duos in the entire league. Marc-Andre Fleury is incredibly good against high danger chances which is something the Blackhawks have struggled with lately.

Fleury is going to carry a cap hit of 7 million for the 2021-22 season and then he is an unrestricted free agent. He may decide to resign, go somewhere else, or retire. Either way, the Hawks made a great move here adding a top-five goalie for basically nothing. They just made it where the upcoming season should be a competitive year for them. With the addition of the Jones brothers on defense, Jonathan Toews’ return, and Fleury in the mix, this should be a good team.

The Chicago Blackhawks just landed an all-time great NHL goaltender via trade.

Marc-Andre Fleury deserves more recognition than he already gets. He is literally one of the greatest goalies in the history of the sport. Towards the end of this last season, he passed Roberto Luongo for third all-time in career NHL wins. If he plays on good teams for about two more years, he could catch Patrick Roy for second place. Catching Martin Brodeur for first is out of reach for pretty much anyone.

Stan Bowman has taken a lot of heat on the hockey side of things for the way he has done his job. Well, lately, things have been going well. Adding Seth Jones is a great move and Fleury adds an elite goalie with so much experience to the mix. It is going to be so fun seeing “the flower” in Chicago.