Whereas his final NHL recreation is behind him, future Corridor-of-Fame goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury isn’t hanging up the skates simply but. He informed reporters throughout Monday’s end-of-season media availability that he’s accepted an invitation to affix Canada at this yr’s World Championship, through Michael Russo of The Athletic.
It’s unclear whether or not he plans on coming into any recreation motion, however there’s a good probability he may. Canada’s solely rostered certainly one of three goalies for the match to this point. That’s Rangers prospect Dylan Garand, who will possible function a No. 3 choice behind Fleury and one other NHL choice. The latter might be the Blues’ Jordan Binnington after St. Louis was eradicated Sunday evening, however that’s hypothesis.
As for the 40-year-old Fleury, it’ll be his first time on the Worlds. Regardless of his prolonged checklist of accolades, Fleury’s solely gotten the decision to play for the senior Canadian nationwide staff as soon as. That was on the 2010 Winter Olympics, and he didn’t get into recreation motion there because the third-stringer behind Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur. His unavailability for the Worlds has often been as a result of playoff obligations, however together with his Wild being bounced by the Golden Knights within the first spherical, he’s free to affix his countrymen in Denmark and Sweden. He did swimsuit up on the World Juniors in 2003 and 2004, posting a .923 SV% in 10 appearances en path to back-to-back silver medals.
He’s technically a gold-medal winner on that Olympic staff, so a gold on the 2025 Worlds may make him the primary goaltender to achieve entry into the Triple Gold Club. The newest Canadian to enter the ranks was defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, due to his 2019 Stanley Cup win with the Blues.
Fleury, a first-overall decide and a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins, may also get to bookend his profession by being teammates with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby as soon as once more. With Fleury’s lack of worldwide expertise, they haven’t been on the identical aspect of a matchup since Vegas chosen Fleury from the Pens within the 2017 growth draft.
