Report: Wild won't trade Fleury
The Minnesota Wild have indicated they don't plan to deal Marc-Andre Fleury ahead of the upcoming trade deadline, reports Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
Fleury, a pending unrestricted free agent, would've been the most accomplished goaltender available. However, he would've had to waive his full no-movement clause to approve a trade. He carries a $3.5-million cap hit on a two-year pact he inked with the Wild in the summer of 2022, according to CapFriendly.
The 39-year-old is 12-10-3 with a .899 save percentage over 28 games this season, all but four of which were starts. On Sunday, Fleury said he didn't want to "just quit" on the Wild by abandoning them in the middle of a playoff race.
The Wild entered Wednesday needing to leapfrog four teams by points percentage to land in the Western Conference's second wild-card spot. They're six points behind the Nashville Predators with a game in hand. Minnesota came into the day with a 14% chance of reaching the postseason, per MoneyPuck.
"If we were last in the conference, maybe it'd be a little bit different," Fleury said Sunday. "But this is my team. We've been battling together, right? I take pride in winning with this team. I want us to make the playoffs. That's my first priority."
Fleury won three championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009, 2016, 2017), with whom he spent the first 13 seasons of his career. He played the following four campaigns with the Vegas Golden Knights, helping them reach the final in their inaugural season of 2017-18. Vegas traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks in July 2021, and they dealt him to Minnesota in March 2022.
The Quebec-born netminder ranks second on the NHL's all-time wins list and fourth in games played at the position.