Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been at the center of several trade rumors over the last couple of weeks, but after a deal failed to come to fruition at the 2016 NHL Draft, the Penguins are now content to start the season with Fleury on the roster.
Jim Rutherford, GM of the Penguins, stated that Fleury will begin 2016-17 in Pittsburgh.
Jim Rutherford just told me that MA Fleury will start the season with the Penguins.
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) June 25, 2016
The Calgary Flames were reportedly interested in Fleury, but nothing panned out as the club decided to pull the trigger on a trade with the St. Louis Blues for Brian Elliott. Fleury was linked to a handful of other teams, but none of those reports sounded quite as serious as the one connecting him to the Flames.
Now that the Flames have made a move for a goalie, the Penguins are electing to sit back and see what happens in the hopes a different team in need of a goalie will come calling. Matthew Murray has more than proved he’s capable of holding down the crease and his cap hit ($620,000) is the far more attractive option compared to Fleury’s hit ($5.75 million) which lasts through the end of the 2018-19 season. The Penguins will need to give Murray a new deal at some point, but it should still be more affordable than Fleury’s current deal.
Fleury should still be on the move, but it appears it will come from an in-season move rather than a trade this summer.
