Pittsburgh Penguins Report: Marc-Andre Fleury Waived NTC For Vegas
According to multiple sources, Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has waived his no-trade clause on his contract for the upcoming expansion draft.
With the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft coming up, the talk of trading Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been everywhere all season. His no-trade clause prevents him from being left unprotected from the expansion draft, and since one goaltender has to be exposed, it looked as if future star goaltender Matt Murray would be forced to be exposed.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Well now, according to Renaud Lavoie on Twitter, Fleury allowed the Penguins to make him movable, but only for the Golden Knights.
Marc-André Fleury accepted the Penguins request in February to waive his no move clause for the expansion draft. Only for Las Vegas.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) June 12, 2017
This almost confirms things for the upcoming expansion draft. Vegas needs a good goalie. Fleury is a good goalie. He’s a great goalie, and he has just made himself available to them. It must take a lot of courage for him to allow the team that he just won a cup with to make him available to be picked up by another team.
What’s more interesting to note is that he accepted the team’s request back in February. It must have been hard for him to play in the playoffs with the thought of his end in Pittsburgh coming up, but nevertheless he backstopped his team through the first two rounds of the playoffs effectively.
Going Forward
So what does this mean for the Penguins? Well the Golden Knights will most likely take advantage of this scenario. They will take Fleury in the draft as he is the best goalie that will be available.
This will leave us with Matt Murray, who is definitely the better choice if we can keep just one. He has played amazingly these past two years and backstopped us to two straight Stanley Cup victories. He is much younger too, being only 23 years old compared to Fleury’s age of 32.
When it comes down to it, we always knew we had to lose one and keep one. In the end, it may be sad to see Fleury go to Vegas. But we knew Murray was the starter of the future.