Vegas Golden Knights: Fleury dethrones The King as goalie of the decade

All long live The King! There is a new King in town after Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was announced the NHL Goalie of the Decade.

It was a hell of an honour for the future Hall of Famer who continues to do his thing with the Vegas Golden Knights.

As part of the NHL’s quest to pick out the best games, moments and players from the last Decade, the league unveiled their Teams of the Decade on Friday.

And, while many thought New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, or “The King” as he is referred to, would be named the best goalie of the Decade, it was Fleury who won that crown.

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It is well-earned recognition for Fleury who has consistently been one of the elite goalies in the National Hockey League since bursting onto the scene in 2003-04, while he’s overcome a string of concussions to become a cornerstone piece of this Vegas team.

He also bounced back from an injury-ravaged start to his career in Sin City to carve out a career year as the Golden Knights made a stunning run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year in 2017-18, going 29-13-4 with a 2.24 Goals Against Average and a .927 Save Percentage in 46 regular season games.

And those kind of exploits led to Fleury being named to the NHL All-Decade Team, which was chosen by a panel of NHL General Managers, NHL hockey operations staff, NHL.com writers and on-air talent from NBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports.

It is easy to see why Fleury was crowned the best NHL goalie of the Decade.

After all, the veteran was the winningest goalie in the NHL in the last Decade, while he also ranked high in a number of other categories.

Fleury led the NHL in wins with 322, he was third in starts with 543 and fifth in shutouts with 43 among all NHL goalies over the last Decade.

He won two Stanley Cups during that span too, which is an impressive feat in itself, although he was a backup to Matt Murray during the Pittsburgh Penguins’ championship run in 2016.

However, Fleury played a much bigger and significant role in the 2017 playoffs as he went 9-6-0 in 15 starts with a 2.56 Goals Against Average and a .924 Save Percentage with two shutouts.

While many predicted that the 35-year-old was starting to be defeated by father time when he was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, Fleury has instead gone from strength to strength.

He’s played critical roles in Vegas reaching the postseason in consecutive years, while he still makes a plethora of jaw-dropping highlight-reel saves.

Fleury also continues to make history and rack up records and the goalie is currently tied with Henrik Lundqvist for fifth place on the NHL’s All-Time Wins list, with Ed Belfour (484) and Roberto Luongo (489) both in sight.

Joining Fleury on the NHL All-Decade First Team was former Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Sidney Crosby, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith and LA Kings blueliner Drew Doughty.

That is one impressive team and those six players combined for a whopping 13 Stanley Cups between 2010-2019, which is just incredible.

You can’t really argue with any of the players on that First Team given what all six players have achieved, and you can see both the NHL All-Decade First Team and Second Team below.

NHL All-Decade First Team

• Alex Ovechkin (F)
• Sidney Crosby (F)
• Patrick Kane (F)
• Duncan Keith (D)
• Drew Doughty (D)
• Marc-Andre Fleury (G)

NHL All-Decade Second Team

• Evgeni Malkin (F)
• Steven Stamkos (F)
• Patrice Bergeron (F)
• Erik Karlsson (D)
• Zdeno Chara (D)
• Henrik Lundqvist (G)

So, congrats Marc-Andre Fleury on yet another honor in what has been a glittering career full of them – here’s to many more!