Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is playing in what seems to be his final NHL season, wrapping up what has almost certainly been a Hall-of-Fame career. The most notable parts of his career came with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vegas Golden Knights where he was one of the most beloved players in the history of each franchise.
He already played in his final game in Pittsburgh earlier this season and received a warm send-off from Penguins fans.
On Sunday, it was Vegas' turn.
Even though Fleury was not in the starting lineup, the Golden Knights still paid tribute to him during a first-period stoppage.
He received an extended standing ovation, as Golden Knights fans also chanted his name in the closing seconds of Vegas' 4-1 win.
Fleury was one of the original Golden Knights, joining the team as part of the expansion draft process from the Penguins before the 2017-18 season.
He was not only the immediate face of the franchise and its biggest star, but he also played a key role in one of the most improbable stories in modern professional sports history when he helped lead an expansion team, in its first season, to the Stanley Cup Final.
In total, Fleury has three Stanley Cup rings (all with Pittsburgh) and has been a part of five teams that have gone to the Stanley Cup Final. Along with the team's success, he also has a Vezina Trophy as the league's best goalie in the 2020-21 season (that he won with Vegas) and is second on the NHL's all-time wins list with 570 wins. He won 117 of those games with the Golden Knights.
As popular and important as Fleury was to the Golden Knights' initial success, the team made the decision to choose Robin Lehner to be its starting goalie after that Vezina season, eventually trading him to the Chicago Blackhawks.
This is his fourth season with the Wild. He has won 59 games with Minnesota.
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