Will Marc Andre Fleury Choke Again?

[cheesedanish87]

If pens lose in the 1st round and MAF blows up again Shero deserves 110% of the blame.

 

[pensfan71]

Who's available? Certainly not anyone without question marks, too.

Hiller and Halak, but you're running the risk that they are actually available.

I'd rather Miller, but the likeliness that he actually hits FA is far lower than the above two.

I don't even know if you can buy out players after FA period starts

And if you can't, you could sign one of those guys, and trade Fleury to a team that needs above par goaltending, such as Winnipeg and work a deal for Kane.

Or you could trade Fleury for Ward, pretty sure he's available, but he hasn't been that good plus he's injury prone

 

[pensfan71]

If pens lose in the 1st round and MAF blows up again Shero deserves 110% of the blame.

No....Bylsma does, his system doesn't exactly help a goaltender

 

[themethod7]

I'm in the minority it seems, I think he's in line for a solid postseason. While I think he probably lets in a softy at some point, I think he also steals at least a game or two with well above average play, and if the Pens lose (which I think they will in either the first or second round), it won't be due to Fleury having another meltdown.

 

[cheesedanish87]

No....Bylsma does, his system doesn't exactly help a goaltender

No system can prevent MAF from putting the puck into his own net.

DB system seemed to work really good for TV last year.

 

[66-30-33]

Who's available? Certainly not anyone without question marks, too.

Almost anyone would be an improvement.

 

[Captain Hook]

He's been so consistently terrible in the playoffs that it's hard to have any faith in him at this point. I just hope if it happens again that it finally spells the end of him and Bylsma here, which is what should have already happened after last season, imo.

 

[orby]

Who's available? Certainly not anyone without question marks, too.

Halak?

 

[66-30-33]

Hiller and Halak, but you're running the risk that they are actually available.

I'd rather Miller, but the likeliness that he actually hits FA is far lower than the above two.

I don't even know if you can buy out players after FA period starts

And if you can't, you could sign one of those guys, and trade Fleury to a team that needs above par goaltending, such as Winnipeg and work a deal for Kane.

Or you could trade Fleury for Ward, pretty sure he's available, but he hasn't been that good plus he's injury prone

With Pavs likely to be bought out, I can see a trade happening with Jets. Sutter, Despres, Fleury and more for Wheeler, and something else. Fleury would give Jets at least 30-35 wins a season. Pens then test UFA for someone. Halak would be good here, his puck handling helps the D a lot.

 

[cassius]

I think it will happen. Would hate to think otherwise, but the reality is…. past history is the best predictor of future performance.

Basically, history tends to repeat itself.

 

[pensfan71]

With Pavs likely to be bought out, I can see a trade happening with Jets. Sutter, Despres, Fleury and more for Wheeler, and something else. Fleury would give Jets at least 30-35 wins a season. Pens then test UFA for someone.

Honestly, if we're putting in Despres and Sutter, I really want Kane too

 

[HuskerTornado]

16 shutouts. Book it.

 

[radapex]

Hiller and Halak, but you're running the risk that they are actually available.

I'd rather Miller, but the likeliness that he actually hits FA is far lower than the above two.

I don't even know if you can buy out players after FA period starts

And if you can't, you could sign one of those guys, and trade Fleury to a team that needs above par goaltending, such as Winnipeg and work a deal for Kane.

Or you could trade Fleury for Ward, pretty sure he's available, but he hasn't been that good plus he's injury prone

You can't. The buyout period starts at the later of June 15 or 2 days after the Stanley Cup finals end and runs through June 30. That what makes it so difficult to buy out a goalie. You basically need to have a replacement on your roster or risk getting nothing - if the Pens bought out Fleury he could, realistically, be the best goalie on the market come July 1.

 

[cassius]

This is a big inflection point for Fleury

If he crashes and burns for the umpteenth time ,we're stuck with a "damaged goods" $5M goaltender that's basically untradeable.

If he succeeds or even plays average, then obviously, folks would start to have some confidence in him.

It's definitely a sink or swim type of situation.

 

[themethod7]

With Pavs likely to be bought out, I can see a trade happening with Jets. Sutter, Despres, Fleury and more for Wheeler, and something else. Fleury would give Jets at least 30-35 wins a season. Pens then test UFA for someone. Halak would be good here, his puck handling helps the D a lot.

Well unless the "something else" is some combination of Kane, Ladd, Bogosian, or Trouba, that's a downright terrible trade. No guarantee we land an upgrade over Fleury, and if all we're doing is adding Wheeler to our top-9, that's not enough to make me go into the regular season with Vokoun/Zatkoff as our starters.

Not to mention that's a lot to give up - all three of the guys you mentioned are first round picks, and two of them are 25 or under with a lot of room left to grow both physically and mentally. That trade has the potential to be another "Goligoski for Neal/Niskanen" but with us on the **** end of the stick. No thanks.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Yep. 4 straight years more or less of absolutely horrendous play. You can't fix the mental aspect that has Fleury by the balls. He gets inside his own head, and that's all she wrote. No amount of therapy will help that.

I'll root insanely hard for this team all the same, but i'm not expecting anything short of him imploading somewhere in the 1st series.

 

[66-30-33]

Well unless the "something else" is some combination of Kane, Ladd, Bogosian, or Trouba, that's a downright terrible trade. No guarantee we land an upgrade over Fleury, and if all we're doing is adding Wheeler to our top-9, that's not enough to make me go into the regular season with Vokoun/Zatkoff as our starters.

Not to mention that's a lot to give up - all three of the guys you mentioned are first round picks, and two of them are 25 or under with a lot of room left to grow both physically and mentally. That trade has the potential to be another "Goligoski for Neal/Niskanen" but with us on the **** end of the stick. No thanks.

No idea what Fleurys value is, won't be Kane though. Add Adams to the package and it will be Kane+ easily, though.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

If he crashes and burns for the umpteenth time ,we're stuck with a "damaged goods" $5M goaltender that's basically untradeable.

Question about this scenario. Not necessarily for you, but for anyone, really. If Fleury crashes and burns, it'd be my inclination to use a compliance buy out on him. However, according to capgeek, Fleury's NMC "prevents being placed on waivers."

Does this mean he cannot be bought out?

 

[wej20]

I'm still not sure he'd be untradeable, he's an above average regular season goalie and some teams just want to get to the playoffs never mind getting out of the 1st round.

 

[66-30-33]

Question about this scenario. Not necessarily for you, but for anyone, really. If Fleury crashes and burns, it'd be my inclination to use a compliance buy out on him. However, according to capgeek, Fleury's NMC "prevents being placed on waivers."

Does this mean he cannot be bought out?

He can be bought out, but will likely be traded instead.

 

[AjaxTelamon]

We can always trade him to Minny for Cooke in the offseason.

 

[billybudd]

Gonna say no. This year, I expect everything other than Fleury to go south.

 

[billybudd]

I'm still not sure he'd be untradeable, he's an above average regular season goalie and some teams just want to get to the playoffs never mind getting out of the 1st round.

If Bryz can get a second lease on life, Flower probably can. His reputation's bad, but it's better than Bryzgalov's was.

 

[themethod7]

I'm still not sure he'd be untradeable, he's an above average regular season goalie and some teams just want to get to the playoffs never mind getting out of the 1st round.

Or think they can fix him, or have a better defensive scheme that will shelter him a lot more than he is here, or any number of things. Seriously, when I read things like "almost anyone would be an improvement", I wonder if people actually watch the other teams in the league. He may not be in that elite top-5 group, but he's still a hell of a goalie and if people think there wouldn't be at least 8-10 teams going after him if he hit FA, they got another thing coming.

 

[66-30-33]

Or think they can fix him, or have a better defensive scheme that will shelter him a lot more than he is here, or any number of things. Seriously, when I read things like "almost anyone would be an improvement", I wonder if people actually watch the other teams in the league. He may not be in that elite top-5 group, but he's still a hell of a goalie and if people think there wouldn't be at least 8-10 teams going after him if he hit FA, they got another thing coming.

I was talking playoffs.