Confirmed Signing with Link: [VGK] Marc-Andre Fleury signs 3 year extension with Golden Knights (AAV $7M)

[KPower]

Pretty funny how much MAF is loved since he left the pens.

If this was him signing with the pens, it would be 50 pages long of bitching about how terrible the contract is.

Anyhow, good guy, good signing.

 

[Disappointed EP40]

I don't love the Rask contract but he's unquestionably a better goalie than Fleury. He's got a .913 career Sv% ffs and was regarded as a huge choker prior to this season. I think what fans call choking is 99% variance but there's no reason to regard Fleury as an above average goaltender.

He’s an above average goaltender.

 

[billybudd]

Pretty funny how much MAF is loved since he left the pens.

If this was him signing with the pens, it would be 50 pages long of *****ing about how terrible the contract is.

Anyhow, good guy, good signing.

To be fair, he just had a phenomenal season in a situation he had absolutely no right to, disabusing the "lack of clutch" criticism in the process.

Take him out of an "embarrassment of riches" setting, put him into a "plucky underdog" one, watch him bury his playoff demons and what's left is a nice guy who's easy to root for.

That said, while I understand the thought-process behind this contract (face of the franchise, workhorse and all that), I'm personally never thrilled with paying goaltenders that much money. Too many guys are clustered around the same performance level every year for it to make sense to drop that much cash on someone like him--a guy who's at the top of the middle of the pack in a good year.

I think what he was making before is about the highest you could normally justify going with him, were he not a marketing lynchpin.

 

[Hexy]

vegas was probably more concerned with his history of carrying vegas to the finals.

/thread

 

[Regal]

To be fair, he just had a phenomenal season in a situation he had absolutely no right to, disabusing the "lack of clutch" criticism in the process.

Take him out of an "embarrassment of riches" setting, put him into a "plucky underdog" one, watch him bury his playoff demons and what's left is a nice guy who's easy to root for.

That said, while I understand the thought-process behind this contract (face of the franchise, workhorse and all that), I'm personally never thrilled with paying goaltenders that much money. Too many guys are clustered around the same performance level every year for it to make sense to drop that much cash on someone like him--a guy who's at the top of the middle of the pack in a good year.

I think what he was making before is about the highest you could normally justify going with him, were he not a marketing lynchpin.

With goalies you pay for consistency though. A lot of guys are clustered at similar levels, true, but there's a lot of guys who also fall far below that, and can sink playoff hopes. For the most part Fleury has put up solid numbers almost every year. You can try to get a guy on the cheap and end up with a high-value deal, but then you run the risk that you get a dud. It might be a little high, but most established starters are going to run close to 6 million anyway, and it's hard to lowball him after the season he just had. They're not hurting for space, and for only three years, it's hard to argue with it too much

 

[The Ugly Truth]

vegas was probably more concerned with his history of carrying vegas to the finals.

Good one! You're a funny guy. But with Crazy George Mcfee at the helm and Meltdown Marc-Andre between the pipes Vegas should not be concerned about reaching another Cup final. That perfect storm isn't happening again.

 

[The Ugly Truth]

We aren't supposed to make the playoffs ever... haven't you heard?

Kinda ironic that he was better in the playoffs this year than the guy that won the Vezina.

Fleury is a class act off the ice and I'm happy for his success. But he's also a headcase that has a long-standing history of mental problems dealing with pressure.

Nashville is one of the teams that I've followed for several years. Most knowledgeable Nashville fans that have watched Rinne for a while recognize that he has a MAF-like tendency to alternate between being brilliant/carrying teams on his back and then choking under pressure. Not every goalie can be Ken Dryden. Or Hasek. Or Brodeur. Or even Quick.

 

[The Ugly Truth]

The dumbest thing about this contract is that it wasn’t necessary.

Why not wait and see how he does for half a season or so then decide? Does he stay healthy, are his numbers as good, was last season a fluke for the team, etc.

It’s not as if teams will be knocking down the door of a 34, soon to be 35 year old goalie next off season.

Normally I would agree, but in this case he's the face of their franchise, it's a new team in a new market and he just finished an incredible year. I would look at the extra million or two that he's making as almost being an advertising expense for Vegas. In that context his contract at this stage of the game is arguably reasonable.

 

[DFF]

Going to Stanley Cup final has consequences

 

[DDRhockey]

Lehner makes 1.5 how is fleury 5 times better?

 

[TorstenFrings]

It's three years for the guy that has basically been the face of their franchise for all its existence. Totally worth it.

What's Vegas going to do, when their starting goalie leaves? Start gambling on the Darlings and Greisses of the world like all the other stuck in mediocrity franchises?

 

[Chips]

As others have pointed out, that’s it’s only 3 years makes this contract at worst kinda bad if he doesn’t carry them to the finals again. Theyre probably some time away from consistently hitting the cap ceiling, it’s a good gamble given his most recent history of carrying an Okay if somewhat Lucky team to the finals.


Even if he’s normally just as good as the currently available “meh” starters, are those other starters as much or more likely to get as hot as Fluery just did? Do they have Fluery’s history of multiple great, bordering amazing stretches? Obviously you’d rather have a consistently great goalie, but in their situation it’s smart sign Fluery and hope he gets hot again at some point at least. Best goalie available, who already knows the team.

Gotta bank on him to stay relevant, they don’t know if they’re gonna catch lightning in a bottle again as far as the entire team goes. Losing solid goaltending would really drop them in the standings.

 

[Newsworthy]

Wow that's a lot of money.

 

[SomeDude]

Lehner makes 1.5 how is fleury 5 times better?

There’s a chance you can find a goalie 5x better than Lehner at your local beer league.

 

[tacogeoff]

oooops lol.
wrong thread.

great signing though. MAF is amazing.

 

[radapex]

Rask literally has some of the best playoff stats ever

Top goalies by playoff SV% over the past 5 years (min 15 GP)...

1. Craig Anderson - .932 SV%, 2.11 GAA, 13-10
2. Braden Holtby - .928 SV%, 2.04 GAA, 35-26
3. Martin Jones - .926 SV%, 2.07 GAA, 22-18
-- Ben Bishop - .926 SV%, 2.09 GAA, 21-13
5. Matt Murray - .923 SV%, 2.08 GAA, 28-15
-- Hendrik Lundqvist - .923 SV%, 2.28 GAA, 31-28
7. Jake Allen - .922 SV%, 2.10 GAA, 9-10
-- Carey Price - .922 SV%, 2.20 GAA, 16-14
-- Connor Hellebuyck - .922 SV%, 2.36 GAA, 9-8
-- Marc-Andre Fleury - .922 SV%, 2.37 GAA, 30-24
-- Cam Talbot - .922 SV%, 2.48 GAA, 7-7
12. Andrei Vasilevskiy - .919 SV%, 2.68 GAA, 15-11
13. Tuukka Rask - .916 SV%, 2.38 GAA, 14-16
14. Pekka Rinne - .915 SV%, 2.46 GAA, 30-25
--- Corey Crawford - .925 SV%, 2.47 GAA, 27-22


Same thing, but regular season and min 100 GP...

1. John Gibson - .923 SV%, 2.29 GAA, 93-55-20
-- Carey Price - .923 SV%, 2.34 GAA, 141-84-23
3. Antti Raanta - .922 SV%, 2.29 GAA, 68-40-15
-- Corey Crawford - .922 SV%, 2.35 GAA, 147-81-26
5. Sergei Bobrovsky - .921 SV%, 2.42 GAA, 155-95-20
-- Roberto Luongo - .921 SV%, 2.43 GAA, 123-87-33
7. Tuukka Rask - .920 SV%, 2.30 GAA, 172-92-37
8. Ben Bishop - .919 SV%, 2.30 GAA, 156-80-26
-- Braden Holtby - .919 SV%, 2.41 GAA, 188-73-31
-- Marc-Andre Fleury - .919 SV%, 2.41 GAA, 155-78-31
-- Semyon Varlamov - .919 SV%, 2.68 GAA, 126-92-23
12. Jonathan Quick - .918 SV%, 2.24 GAA, 144-95-27
--- Pekka Rinne - .918 SV%, 2.38 GAA, 158-80-32
--- Devan Dubnyk - .918 SV%, 2.42 GAA, 154-93-25
--- Cam Talbot - .918 SV%, 2.50 GAA, 127-95-21
--- Frederik Andersen - .918 SV%, 2.55 GAA, 148-63-31


To provide better context to the actual cap figure... the 5.75-mil he signed for previous accounted for 8.33% of the 69.4-mil cap at the time. The 7.00-mil he just re-signed for accounts for 8.81% of the current 79-mil cap. So we're talking half a percentage point difference in relative value to the salary cap, which is pretty minor.


Edit: Also, as you can see from the numbers above, the notion of elite goaltenders in today's NHL is a virtual myth. There are 35 goalies within 1% SV% (0.010) of the top guys. Put any behind a good defensive team and they're going to post elite numbers; but them behind a team that disregards defense, and they'll look fairly average. Fleury is a perfect illustration of this - his first season away from the "always offense-first" Penguins and he plays way above his career average.

 

[beowulf]

He most certainly deserves it. Gives them some stability in nets and keeps the current face of the franchise front and center.

 

[Georgetown Al]

no, it's a show of goodwill and trust because they gave him an extension immaturely for a goaltender. Team rarely give an extension that quick after 1 year to a goaltender.

So just like the Jets did with Hele then...

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

So just like the Jets did with Hele then...

no, it's his third year lol

 

[BeastoftheEast85]

Big money for MAF but I guess it’s fair considering the short term

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

Pretty funny how much MAF is loved since he left the pens.

If this was him signing with the pens, it would be 50 pages long of *****ing about how terrible the contract is.

Anyhow, good guy, good signing.

So some Leafs fans are not the only one infected by the "Everybody Hates Us" syndrome ?

 

[Georgetown Al]

no, it's his third year lol

Here are some stats then:

Goaltending performances of cup winners:

Holtby .922
Murray .937 and MAF .924
Murray .923
Crawford .924
Quick .911
Crawford .932
Quick .946
Thomas .940
Niemi .910
MAF .908

Cap Space per goalie prior to Fleury resigning...

Team	Cap hit	Rank
MTL	11,450,000	1
Bos	9,750,000	2
Col	9,233,333	3
Chi	9,000,000	4
NYR	8,500,000	5
CLB	8,325,000	6
Det	8,291,666	7
Florida	7,933,333	8
San Jose	7,650,000	9
Arz	7,516,667	10
Dal	7,416,666	11
NJ	7,250,000	12
Ott	7,150,000	13
NSH	7,000,000	14
Van	6,966,667	15
LA	6,825,000	16
WPG	6,816,667	17
Wash	6,750,000	18
Edm	6,704,167	19
Veg	6,400,000	20
St Louis	6,100,000	21
Tor	5,850,000	22
Car	5,650,000	23
Phi	5,250,000	24
Minn	4,983,333	25
NYI	4,833,333	26
Tampa	4,650,000	27
Ana	4,300,000	28
Pitts	4,250,000	29
Cal	4,250,000	30
Buf	3,500,000	31

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Hellebuyck's Past Performance:

2011-12: .930 (NAHL)
2012-13: .952 (NCAA)
2013-14: .941 (NCAA, Won Mike Richter Award as most outstanding NCAA goalie)
2014-15: .921 (AHL)
2015: .948 (IIHF World Championships, bronze medalist, WC All-Star Team)
2015-16: .922 (AHL), .918 (NHL)
2016-17: .907 (NHL)
2017-18: .924 (NHL regular season, Vezina finalist), .922 (NHL playoffs, 3rd best SV% in playoffs (>4 games))

Yes its Hele third year and as far as I am concerned you are way off base when talking about NHL goaltenders period...

Enjoy your pricey Price...

 

[JT Kreider]

Pretty funny how much MAF is loved since he left the pens.

If this was him signing with the pens, it would be 50 pages long of *****ing about how terrible the contract is.

Anyhow, good guy, good signing.

Lol Pens fans shat on him too prior to last seasons playoffs.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Give me a friggin break. Jeff Zatkoff was more of a factor in the 2015-16 playoffs.

Oh, you mean the playoffs they never make without him saving their bacon while Mike Johnston was around into Dec. Fleury was very much a part of them being there right up to his concussion 2 weeks out from the playoffs.

Mr. Game #1.... you say. That one and only game he doesn't get to experience if not for Fleury.

 

[torrencemd]

Ill be the first one to say that I am happy for MAF and he deserves that new contract for sure. There is just no way you can pass up on a 23 year old rookie who comes in and takes the reigns without looking like a back up at all. I think a lot of Pens fans would have wanted MAF for another year or two to mentor Murrs, but the expansion draft forced one of the hardest decisions in the teams history. Wish him the best unless they play us....