The Chicago Blackhawks are moving on from Marc-Andre Fleury, trading the netminder to the Minnesota Wild on Monday in exchange for a conditional second-round draft choice (it becomes a first if the Wild make the Western Conference finals this season and Fleury earns at least four wins in the preceding two playoff rounds). Chicago also retained 50% of Fleury’s $7 million cap hit.
Fleury held most of the cards on this one, thanks to a 10-team no-trade list. Given that, let’s look at how both sides fared in the swap:
Wild general manager Bill Guerin spent the final two seasons of his playing career in Pittsburgh, right alongside — you guessed it — Fleury.
That connection is a bonus. Yes, Fleury wanted to go to a contender — if he agreed to be moved at all — and Minnesota certainly qualifies despite its recent struggles. But landing with a familiar face is a nice touch for Fleury, who only just settled his young family in Chicago this season. You know Guerin will do whatever it takes to make the transition comfortable for them.
The real question in evaluating this one: Can Fleury be the 2020-21 version of Fleury? The success or failure of this trade hinges on the answer. Because right after the Fleury trade was revealed, Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen was moved to San Jose. That leaves Fleury and Cam Talbot as Minnesota’s goalie tandem, and Talbot hasn’t been great of late (5-4-0, .883 save percentage, 3.33 goals against average).
Meanwhile, Fleury has had a solid if unspectacular season in Chicago (19-21-5, .908 SV%, 2.95 GAA). He’s 37 now, so some decline is expected, but Fleury is also a three-time Stanley Cup champion and took the Vegas Golden Knights to a Cup Final just four years ago. Plus, he was a Vezina Trophy winner last year after a 26-win season. The rebuilding Blackhawks haven’t provided the kind of support Fleury got in Vegas, either, but the Wild should. That will go a long way.
And even when the Blackhawks play badly, Fleury’s been good. The only reason Chicago got a point out of Sunday’s game in Boston was the 46-save performance turned in by its goaltender. Fleury still has that potential. Minnesota will just need it night in, night out in the contentious Central Division.
Betting a second-round pick on Fleury feels safe. He can’t single-handedly solve every issue for Minnesota, but there are few players in the league more beloved among his teammates than Fleury. And if that pick becomes a first-round choice because the Wild make it to the Western Conference finals and Fleury is a major part of that, all the better.
As noted above, it’s not like GM Kyle Davidson had a ton of options on this one. Fleury could easily have chosen to stay in Chicago, become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and leave the Blackhawks with nothing. This, at least, is something — and it’s a good something.
After moving Brandon Hagel to Tampa Bay in a trade on Friday, it’s clear what direction Chicago is headed in and it’s not toward another Cup run in the short term. Collecting assets is the name of the game, and Davidson could be focused on restocking the Blackhawks’ sparse cupboards. He already snagged two first-rounders out of the Lightning for Hagel, and now he’s potentially got another.
We’ll know more later about what all that means in terms of actual players, but Chicago is dealing in unknown futures right now and that makes this trade a smart one.