Penguins/NHL
Fleury meeting with representation next week to discuss future plans
Marc Andre Fleury is one of the most respected players/members of the Penguins organization, while also one of the most popular players among his teammates.
Therefore, the team has intended to be very cautious in how they handle the Fleury situation publicly, and as expected, Penguins’ GM Jim Rutherford said today in a perfect world he would like to have Fleury and Matt Murray back next season.
“I can just say, if it was in a perfect world [Mike Sullivan) and I were making a decision right now, we’d like to start the season with Fleury and Murray, but we’ll have to see what the circumstances are and how we’ll deal with them going forward,” Rutherford said today.
The reality is that the Penguins don’t live in a perfect world.
The expansion rules are going to force the Penguins hand soon enough, so is the salary cap. The Penguins are right up against the cap for next season and their 22 year old No. 1 starter is going to need paid following the 2016-2017 season.
There is so much respect for Marc Andre Fleury in the organization, all indications are he’s going to get to drive the bus here on when his tenure as a Penguin comes to an end.
Does Fleury prefer to move on now and orchestrate a trade next weekend at the draft or play this season out and see where the chips fall next summer?
The most likely scenario is the former, per sources close to the situation.
Both parties will be meeting next week that will dictate where things go at the draft.
Already today there was a domino effect on the Fleury trade market.
The Carolina Hurricanes had internal discussions during their pro scouting meetings in early June about the possibility of trading for Fleury this off-season. There was also a few conversations along the way in the past seven to 10 days between both organizations.
At the end of the day, the Hurricanes went the more financially feasible route in resigning Cam Ward to a two year, $6.6 million contract.
The domino effect of this was the Calgary Flames had very strong interest in signing Cam Ward To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
