No matter who tends goal for the Vegas Golden Knights today, tomorrow, or ten years from now, the franchise's first true star in the crease was Marc-Andre Fleury. The future Hall of Famer is the second-winningest goalie in NHL history, and as of 2026, remains the only Golden Knights puckstopper to win the Vezina Trophy.
However, immediately following his first and only Vezina Trophy victory, Vegas traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks for Mikael Hakkarainen. At only 36, Fleury still had four more seasons of hockey left in him, which begs the question: what if he played out the remainder of his days with the Golden Knights?
Could the Golden Knights replicate their successes with Fleury if he stayed for four more seasons?
Fleury began his tenure with the Blackhawks on October 13, 2021, with a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, while Vegas earned a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken in the franchise’s first-ever game without him on their roster.
After 45 games, with Chicago near the bottom of the NHL standings, Fleury was 19-21-5 with a 2.95 GAA, .908 SV%, and four shutouts. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights were 26-16-3 with a plus-18 goal differential.
Eventually, the Blackhawks traded him to the Minnesota Wild in March 2022. Now on a playoff contender, Fleury won his first three games with the Wild, finishing out the campaign with a 9-2-0 record, 2.74 GAA, and .910 SV%.
Overall, with two teams, he was 28-23-5, while Vegas had three goalies, Robin Lehner, Laurent Brossoit, and Logan Thompson, share the crease, combining for a 43-31-8 record, with only Lehner earning more than 20 victories, with 23. The Golden Knights missed the playoffs, while Fleury and the Wild lost to the St. Louis Blues in six games.
At 38 years old, Fleury backstopped the Wild to third place in the Central Division in 2022-23, the same year Vegas would go on to capture the Stanley Cup. He split the crease with a 24-year-old Filip Gustavsson. In 46 games, Fleury went 24-16-4 with a 2.85 GAA and .908 SV%, while Gustavsson was 22-9-7.
In the desert, Vegas went through the regular season with five goalies: Adin Hill, Thompson, Brossoit, Jonathan Quick, and Jiri Petera. Only Thompson and Hill played more than 25 games, and they were the only ones to reach double digits in wins. Behind a stacked lineup, the Golden Knights' goalies posted a 51-22-9 record.
In the postseason, Fleury made his second-to-last playoff appearance, skating in two games during the Wild’s first-round loss to the Dallas Stars, producing a miserable 5.48 GAA and .811 SV% in just 76 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Hill established himself as a starter, going 11-4 en route to capturing the Stanley Cup with a playoff-leading .932 SV%.
Even on the backside of his career, Fleury could have still helped the Golden Knights win games
After winning the Stanley Cup, the Golden Knights did not repeat as Pacific Division champions, while Minnesota tumbled all the way down to sixth place in the Central Division. At 39, Fleury played 40 games, going 17-15-5, which was five appearances fewer than Gustavsson, who went 20-18-4 in 45 contests. In addition, Jesper Wallstedt made his NHL debut that year, going 2-1-0 in three games.
Obviously, the Wild didn't qualify for the playoffs, while Vegas didn't advance out of the first round, losing to the Stars in seven games. Their goalie platoon that year included Thompson, Hill, and Patera, the latter the only one not producing a winning record. Thompson was 25-14-5, and Hill went 19-12-2, a record similar to Fleury's behind a more talented lineup.
In Fleury’s final season, 2024-25, he skated in only 26 games, earning a 14-9-1 record, while Gustavsson was among the league leaders with a .914 SV% and 2.56 GAA in 58 games. The Wild qualified for the playoffs as a wild-card team, drawing the Golden Knights in the opening round.
During the regular season, Vegas had Hill leading the pack with 50 games, going 32-13-5, while newcomers Ilya Samsonov (16-9-4) and Akira Schmid (2-0-1) played the remaining games. That year, the Golden Knights advanced to the second round, losing out to the Edmonton Oilers in five games, while Fleury skated in his last NHL game on April 29, 2025.
Statistically speaking, if Fleury had stayed with the Golden Knights, he would have added another championship to his resume, giving him one more than Martin Brodeur, the game's all-time wins leader, and tying the great Patrick Roy, who also had four rings.
Marc-Andre Fleury salutes the crowd and leaves the ice for the final time in his NHL career 👏 pic.twitter.com/FVUjHwz7SI
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 2, 2025
Already the Vegas leader in regular-season victories with 117, Fleury could have added another 80 to his total, bringing it to 197, based just on his records with the Blackhawks and Wild. Behind a stronger lineup, there’s a chance Fleury could have surpassed 200 and the Golden Knights might not have missed the playoffs in 2021-22. As one of the most beloved players in franchise history, Fleury has many "what-if" moments, but one can only dream of what could have been if he had finished his career with the Golden Knights instead of against them.
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