why didn't Pittsburgh trade Marc-Andre Fleury

[Dominance]

Pretty fun looking back now to when so many experts on here were calling him terrible. Especially the choice few Flames fans who didn’t want him for ANY price.

 

[THall4]

2. This is probably the main reason for keeping Fleury rather than trading him. Keeping him for another cup run was incredibly important, and I'm sure behind closed doors, the discussion was that they'd keep MAF for the run and then the two would part ways. I think this took a TON of pressure off of Fleury to perform, knowing that he wasn't fighting for a spot and didn't have to worry about the future.

3. It came out later that he waived his NMC behind closed doors (sometime in early february, I believe).

5. I 100% believe that the Penguins do not get past Washington last year without Fleury. The team's backups don't get through Washington, or maybe not even CBJ.

I remember reading somewhere where MAF was expecting to be dealt at the TDL and the Calgary was very much interested...and that he was ready to waive to go to Calgary.

Eitherway, it was a smart move because the Pens wouldn't have won the SC last year without him...and IMO winning the cup >> draft picks

 

[heysmilinstrange]

IMO winning the cup >> draft picks

I wonder if there are any circumstances in which draft picks would be better than winning the Cup?

 

[BHD]

Well I'm glad they didn't trade Fleury, or else there's no way the Pens even make it to the SCF last year.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

I don’t know a lot about the Pens but if Fleury is off the table who do the Knights take instead?

Occam's Razor: Murray (who they would have no choice but to expose).

 

[GrkFlyersFan]

Hindsight is 20/20 but as many of you said, they weren't beating Washington with Tristan Jarry in net. They needed him one last time, he delivered, and he shouldn't have been pulled from the ECF. But then again, the fact that Sullivan trusted Murray more to finish the job explains why he's gone. They win the Cup, the formal transition from Fleury to Murray is complete. Fleury's killing it in Vegas, and while I wasn't impressed by Murray's first full season as a starter, I think the Pens are comfortable with their future in net with him.

 

[beowulf]

On the Jay and Dan Podcast a few months ago MAF's agent was on. Paraphrasing what he said about the situation is that Fleury and Rutherford came to an agreement in December that he would waive his NMC for the expansion draft as long as Rutherford did not attempt to move him for the remainder of the season.

Which as someone else said, worked for both sides. He won 9 games in the Pens Cup run that season and the Pens didn't have to worry about losing someone else in the expansion draft. The funny part is that the Pens didn't make it past the second round this year but Fleury is still going.

 

[Barrie22]

I don’t know a lot about the Pens but if Fleury is off the table who do the Knights take instead?

Murray.

 

[Deedog99]

Should have kept fleury and traded murray

 

[Dylonus]

I believe there was a story stating he would waive his NMC to be exposed in the draft if they agreed not to trade him so he could try to win another Cup with them last year.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

OP meant why they didn't trade Fleury before the expansion draft, like maybe a week before it.
Fleury could've returned good assets.

 

[Jumptheshark]

why didn't Pittsburgh trade Fleury before the draft to get some better players instead of just letting him go for free and get picked out of their pocket ?

1) N0 movement clause
2) See 1
3) NMC gave him the decision where he could go or to say no
4) He says no it is Murrey exposed and not him and we would be having the discussion over why the pens did not trade him and not MAF
5) Pens did not have a goalie that they could have exposed if they traded one or the other

 

[Jumptheshark]

btw

Who says they did not try? Would MAF have taken a trade to either Buffalo or Edmonton?

With Vegas he controlled his fate and it sounds like leading up to the expansion draft Vegas won him over to waive his NMC

 

[ronduguayshair]

One thing that I wonder is if Fleury would have stopped one of the many breakaways that the Letang allowed.

Murray’s subpar on breakaways

 

[dkhockey]

1) N0 movement clause
2) See 1
3) NMC gave him the decision where he could go or to say no
4) He says no it is Murrey exposed and not him and we would be having the discussion over why the pens did not trade him and not MAF
5) Pens did not have a goalie that they could have exposed if they traded one or the other

i see..... what a bummer to see in him vegas , should have been a pen for life

 

[SotasicA]

I think the thought at the time was the Penguins would have to add a sweetener to get rid of his contract. I could link you to some of those threads.

It was not easy to move him, especially with the NTC. His value was also not very high. I think the Flames wanted him, but I doubt they would have offered any tangible assets in return.

Then the Penguins would have had to acquire another goalie to expose at the expansion draft.

Really, the easiest way to "get rid of him" was the draft. And Pens fans weren't too upset about it, IIRC. They had Murray. And they essentially got rid of Fleury's contract for nothing, which was okay. Win-win for Pens and Knights.

 

[Deadpool8812]

btw

Who says they did not try? Would MAF have taken a trade to either Buffalo or Edmonton?

With Vegas he controlled his fate and it sounds like leading up to the expansion draft Vegas won him over to waive his NMC

They didn't win him over. As I pointed out, his agent said that he agreed to waive his NMC for Vegas to select him in December as long as the Pens didn't attempt to trade him beforehand

 

[ES]

Penguins also didn't have suitable goalie to expose since others were inexperienced enough to be included.

Had they traded Fleury they would have needed to get a goalie to expose.

 

[BeastoftheEast85]

OP meant why they didn't trade Fleury before the expansion draft, like maybe a week before it.
Fleury could've returned good assets.

Except he wouldn’t have gotten a return better than what they would have lost in the expansion draft unless the Pens retained salary (which they would never want to do). While he had just won the cup, at the time he was a 32 year old 1B goalie on a 5.75 per annum contract.

 

[GMofOilers]

On the Jay and Dan Podcast a few months ago MAF's agent was on. Paraphrasing what he said about the situation is that Fleury and Rutherford came to an agreement in December that he would waive his NMC for the expansion draft as long as Rutherford did not attempt to move him for the remainder of the season.

This is thread right here.

Shouldnt be much discussion beyond this.

 

[MrFunnyWobbl]

Doesn't Fleury have a massive cap hit too?

 

[SotasicA]

$5.75m backups don't actually fetch that much. In fact, they have negative value. The Penguins took the best deal available by giving him away for nothing.

 

[Tweed]

OP meant why they didn't trade Fleury before the expansion draft, like maybe a week before it.
Fleury could've returned good assets.

Brassard is the answer to that question.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

1. He had some control with his NTC which could have made it more difficult to trade especially as he was having an average season.

2. Murray had only played 13 regular season games the year before in his rookie season so we needed another good goalie still just in case things went south. We got to keep Fleury for another cup run.

3. Fleury likely agreed to waive his NMC for Vegas if he could play out the season as a Penguin.

4. Vegas agreeing to take Fleury who we would have had to move anyway for cap reasons which meant we wouldn’t lose one of our skaters.

5. Hindsight: there is a very good chance we don’t win the cup so it really worked out for everyone.

Another possible reason pens didn't want to help some team get over the hump and possibly facing him in postseason as everyone expected Vegas to suck.

 

[JuniorNelson]

This is where LV got really lucky, for me. If they hadn't gotten a starter with playoff creds and leadership they wouldn't have been much.