Marc-Andre Fleury

Marc-Andre Fleury was born November 28, 1984, in Sorel, Quebec, and became the first overall pick of the 2003 NHL Draft, selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He retired after 1,051 regular-season games, 575 wins, 76 shutouts, and a 2.60 goals-against average — numbers that place him second all-time in both wins and games played among NHL goaltenders ^[1].

In playoff competition, Fleury accumulated 92 wins (fourth all-time), appeared in 170 games (third all-time), and recorded 16 shutouts (fourth all-time) ^[1]. He won three Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh — in 2009, 2016, and 2017 — and stands first in virtually every statistical category in Penguins franchise history, regular season and playoffs ^[1].

The path to those numbers was not linear. Twenty-one games into his NHL career, Fleury was sent back to junior ^[2]. He lost and regained the starter's role in Pittsburgh more than once. In the 2016–17 playoff run, he came off the bench for Game 1 of the first round against Columbus after Matt Murray was injured in warmups, with the Penguins having been outshot 16–3 in the first period of that game. Fleury won nine of the 16 playoff games that delivered Pittsburgh's Cup that spring ^{[1] [2]}.

The following summer, the Penguins left Fleury unprotected and he was claimed by Vegas in the expansion draft. In his first season with the Golden Knights, he posted a 0.927 save percentage and took the franchise to the Stanley Cup Final ^{[1] [2]}. He won his first Vezina Trophy in 2020–21, posting a 1.98 goals-against average and a 0.928 save percentage at age 36, and also shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with Robin Lehner that season ^[3]. All told, Fleury played nine seasons after leaving Pittsburgh, adding 360 games and 200 wins to his NHL resume ^[2].

His final stops were in Chicago and Minnesota before a preseason farewell with Pittsburgh — a public practice followed by a preseason game against Columbus — that InGoal covered as part of a broader look at his career ^[2]. InGoal Magazine has covered Marc-Andre Fleury in one podcast appearance and six InGoal articles.

A recurring subject across that coverage is the relationship between Fleury's disposition and his longevity. Coaches earlier in his career, he told InGoal Radio, sometimes pushed back on his approach. "I've had times, maybe in the slumps or bad moments, that coaches maybe wanted me to be bit more quiet when I was younger," he said ^[2]. He tried to adjust. "And I tried to be more serious. I tried to be more quiet and stuff, but it's not me," he said. "I wasn't comfortable. I love playing and that's when I play the best, when I'm smiling and having fun, and more relaxed, more loose. Hands are going, right? So that's what works for me" ^[2].

That disposition did not indicate indifference to results. "I don't smile when I get scored on, that's for sure. Last game, I think I give up five or six, and I smashed my stick," he told InGoal. "I always go into the game trying to win. That's what I want, that's why it's fun. And when I don't, I'm pissed off" ^[2]. His approach to the next day was deliberate: "Usually, I try to give myself the night and on the next day come to the rink and try to be in a good mood, try to be good for the teammates, you know, and do it all over again" ^[2].

The competitive intensity showed up in practice as much as in games. When backup Mathieu Garon played alongside Fleury during Pittsburgh's 2008–09 Stanley Cup run, it recalibrated his understanding of what competing in practice looked like. "The compete level in the practices," Garon told InGoal. "He loves to have fun. If it's too tight, he's not feeling well. He needs to be loose, but in practices he fights hard and he really wants to stop all those pucks and at that time I was older, but it was good for me to be around him and see like, 'Oh my God, that's what it is to compete'" ^[4].

Fleury was, at the time InGoal covered it, the only starting goaltender in the NHL who participated in Last Puck — the end-of-warmup scramble game typically left to the backup ^{[5] [4]}. He also did a cartwheel in full equipment outside the Pittsburgh dressing room before a 2017 playoff start, an episode he explained to InGoal: "I wasn't starting and Matt [Murray] got hurt and I was going in and I was a little nervous. I hadn't played in a while so I was stretching and throwing balls on the wall and I thought like, 'To heck with this, just relax, and go have fun'" ^{[5] [4]}.

Max Pacioretty, who arrived in Vegas before the 2018–19 season, described to InGoal how Fleury set the tone in practice. "When I first came here I would score in practice on Flower and I felt like, 'Don't look at him and skate back in line,' and he came up to me after my second practice and said, 'Hey bud, don't be afraid if you score on me to chirp me because I am going to do the same to you,'" Pacioretty said. "It makes for competitiveness and getting better, but also it makes for a lot of fun" ^[5].

Even late in his career, Fleury acknowledged nerves before games. "You would think after more than 1,000 games played, you don't stress or have butterflies too much, but I still do," he said. What changed was his relationship with those feelings. "I feel with time, I've learned it's not a bad thing, you know, to be nervous or [have] butterflies. It's normal. And for me, one thing that helps sometimes just deep breaths, you know, having a couple deep breaths, inhale, hold it a little bit, blow out slow. And then thinking about the simple plays" ^[2].

Fleury also continued evolving technically throughout his career. He added the Reverse-VH to his game when Mike Bales joined Pittsburgh as goaltending coach in 2013 ^[3]. Then, during his one season with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021–22, he added the Overlap technique after noticing how his younger partner Kevin Lankinen used it. Lankinen had 19 NHL wins at the time; Fleury was in his 18th NHL season. "Still learning," Fleury told InGoal. "Always learning. Always trying to get better, trying to follow the game" ^{[1] [3]}. He explained to InGoal what drew him to the Overlap: "I feel like I was getting caught on the post. Sometimes you are in between with other ways. When you go outside the post, you can go down and you still can push across" ^[3].

His equipment evolved as well. For years Fleury was among the last holdouts using a wood stick before moving to a composite model from True ^[6]. As he approached his 1,000th career game — at the time of a 2023 InGoal piece, he was five games from becoming the fourth goaltender ever to reach that milestone — he showed InGoal a custom stick grip with a reverse curve on the thumb side of his blocker, an idea he traced back to a stick Carey Price had given him. "I always felt a little stuck with my thumb and then I felt like my stick was farther from my butterfly," Fleury told InGoal. "So now I feel like the stick is a little shorter, it's closer to the pad" ^[6].

Colin Hodd's analysis for InGoal identified Fleury as a figure who heralded a new era of goaltending when he arrived in 2003 — possessing the technical tools of the butterfly style combined with a degree of mobility that previous generations had not shown, and credited by many as the first to drive his butterfly recovery push leg all the way over the opposite knee, across the midline of his body ^[1]. He was still making technical adjustments in his final NHL seasons, and still appearing, by teammate accounts, at the rink every day the same way. As Logan Thompson, then a rookie called up to Vegas, told InGoal: "He still acts like a kid. He has fun. He just loves playing hockey. He's a competitive guy and he has so much fun doing it" ^[5].

Fleury himself kept it simple when asked what kept him going after more than a thousand games: "I love hockey, I'm a big fan, you know. I love watching the highlights in the morning to see what kind of goals are being scored. I love watching goalies, all the big saves they make, it's always fun, too" ^[2].