Marc-Andre Fleury is traded to a Blackhawks division rival

The Chicago Blackhawks have traded Marc-Andre Fleury. Instead of it being the Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers like many thought throughout the season, they have decided to trade him to a team within the Central Division.

The Minnesota Wild are the winners of the Fleury sweepstakes as they have added him for the Stanley Cup run. They are in a good spot in the standings to make the postseason and would like to finally take that next step.

We all remember those Wild teams that were really good but never able to get into the third round of the postseason. Well, a three-time Stanley Cup champion like Marc-Andre Fleury might be able to help them finally do that.

The Blackhawks traded Fleury to the Wild for a second-round pick. However, that second-round pick will become a first-round pick if the Wild reach the Western Conference Finals and Fleury account for at least four of those first eight wins in the first two rounds.

The Chicago Blackhawks sent Marc-Andre Fleury to the Minnesota Wild.

It is a very interesting trade between two teams that have spent the last decade fighting for playoff position. Now that one team is bad and one is elite, trades like this can be made. Now, both teams have something that can help them reach their current goals.

Fleury is going to bring that big-time experience to the Wild team that he helped defeat in the postseason last year. He has the ability to change games in the net as we saw with the Blackhawks all year long.

He was elite on this bad Blackhawks team so going to the Wild will do wonders for him. They defend nicely between all of their forwards and defenseman working together to protect the house. It will certainly be refreshing for him to play on a team like this again.

If they reach the conference finals, the pick the Hawks will get will be between 28-32 which isn’t the best of the first round but it is much better than being a second-round pick or even losing Fleury for nothing.

For the rest of the way, Blackhawks fans will be cheering for the Wild as their postseason success will help Chicago in the long run as they can have a much higher draft pick. They also don’t currently carry a first-round pick in 2022 so getting one back would be great.

Fleury was great in his time with Chicago. It was nice to see one of the greatest who ever lived put on that sweater even if it was just for a few months. He will have success in Minnesota but it would sure be nice to see him add another ring to his hand.