Marc-Andre Fleury Makes His Stance on Unretirement Calls Crystal Clear

Former goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury’s NHL career may be over with his final game being played at the end of last season, but not every team has seemingly accepted it.

The 40-year-old officially retired in early May, effective following the 2024-25 season, which ended with a playoff loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and a brief international stint with Canada at the IIHF World Championship.

According to Fleury’s longtime agent, Allan Walsh, five teams called on Tuesday to see if Fleury would consider coming out of retirement. Walsh revealed those calls while appearing on a podcast from SDPN.

July 1, I got called by five teams asking if there was any way Marc-Andre Fleury would unretire,” Walsh said.

Walsh added that the teams were serious about signing Fleury, so much so that they were willing to offer one-year deals to the agent on the spot in order to convince the goalie to return.

“You talked about the goalie market this year,” Walsh said. “Five teams calling and they were prepared to make serious offers on one-year deals to entice ‘Flower’ to their city.”

Having finished last season with a .899 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against average as a backup for the Minnesota Wild, Fleury is still viewed as a viable option in a market starved for goaltending depth.

Even then, the three-time Stanley Cup winner has made his stance clear and remains firm in his decision, as relayed by his agent during the same podcast.

“Well, he’s made it pretty clear for now that he has no intention to play next year,” Walsh said.

Fleury finished his 21-year NHL run by appearing in 1,051 regular-season games and winning 575 of them, the second-most in league history.

The netminder won Stanley Cup championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017, all with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who drafted him first overall in 2003. After that, he spent the remainder of his career with the Vegas Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks and Wild.