Rumor: Marc Andre Fleury may be headed for a buyout.

A buyout is on the table.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Rumor: Marc Andre Fleury may be headed for a buyout.
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The Las Vegas Golden Knights created a goaltending controversy for themselves this season when they acquired goaltender Robin Lehner at the trade deadline from the Chicago Blackhawks. At the time the Golden Knights indicated that the move had been designed to shore up the position due to the team's lack of confidence in backup Malcolm Subban, but it wouldn't be long before Lehner would usurp starting goaltender Marc Andre Fleury.

In spite of the fact that Fleury has thus far been the face of the franchise the Golden Knights leaned heavily on Robin Lehner during the Stanley Cup playoffs and the fact that this created a problem between Fleury and Golden Knights head coach Peter Deboer became apparent very quickly. Fleury himself did not say anything but suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, his agent Allan Walsh published the following image on social media:

The image came as a shock to everyone and I have yet to hear a single person tell me they believe that Walsh did this without first consulting with Fleury. In fact Fleury was asked several times about whether or not he knew of the image before it was published and each time he chose to avoid the question, a decision that spoke volumes to me. Now there is a belief that the Golden Knights will stick with Lehner moving forward and look to move on from Fleury, and that comes as no surprise given what transpired in the playoffs. What does seem like a surprise however is it sounds like even a buyout may be on the table. 

"Vegas has got to figure out it's situation," said NHL insider Elliotte Friedman this week. "Someone told me they are not convinced that Vegas wants to buyout Fleury. Now they may have no choice because if they sign Lehner, you don't wanna have $12 million in goalies."

It sounds like the Golden Knights would prefer not to go that route, but the option does appear to be on the table.

"I don't think they want to buy him out, but it's possible," added Friedman.

That would be a tough pill to swallow for the Golden Knights however given how the structure of Fleury's buyout would work out. In the first season the Golden Knights would only take a hit of $2.5 million and the following season would be just over $3 million, but the penalty would come in the final two years with Fleury's buyout counting for just over $2 million against the cap in each of those seasons.

Is the dead cap space worth the upgrade of Fleury to Lehner? 

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