PITTSBURGH — The Penguins’ nostalgia tour is escalating to unprecedented locations.
Marc-Andre Fleury, the legendary goaltender who spent the ultimate eight seasons of his profession enjoying for varied NHL groups, is ending the place it began. Type of.
Pittsburgh normal supervisor and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas introduced Friday that Fleury is becoming a member of the group that he spent the primary 13 seasons of his profession with on knowledgeable tryout settlement.
Fleury, 40, will be a part of the Penguins for observe at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, September 26, earlier than suiting as much as play in elements of the their exhibition recreation towards the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, September 27 at 7:00 p.m. at PPG Paints Enviornment.
Welcome dwelling, Flower. The black and gold missed you 🖤💛
Learn extra: https://t.co/oZr416yko9 pic.twitter.com/dZbuiqrQaA
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 12, 2025
Fleury introduced his retirement from hockey earlier this 12 months and completed his profession in a playoff sequence loss for the Minnesota Wild towards the Vegas Golden Knights, one other of his former groups. Nonetheless, Fleury determined to play a little bit longer and agreed to play for Staff Canada within the IIHF World Championships in Sweden in Could. A part of his reasoning was that he needed to play with Sidney Crosby one final time.
Now, he’s getting one other alternative.
Although Fleury has acquired a PTO from the Penguins, there is no such thing as a intention that he’ll play within the common season for the group that chosen him first total within the 2003 NHL Draft. Moderately, Fleury is ready to hitch the Penguins in coaching camp and goes to participate in an exhibition recreation in order that his last hockey look is sporting black and gold, and in order that his kids may have the chance to see their father play for the Penguins earlier than he formally retires.
He has three kids: Estelle, 12, Scarlett, 9, and James, 6.
This falls someplace between a one-day contract and an precise PTO.
On the floor, this might sound a bit peculiar, provided that the Penguins are coping with a goaltending competitors and that preseason video games and coaching camp are going to function the battleground for as many as 4 different gamers who will likely be in competitors. The Penguins, nevertheless, are fierce of their need to have a good time the previous. Dubas bought to know Fleury throughout the world championships and commented throughout that point that he believed it was extraordinarily vital for the Penguins to do a greater job of honoring their previous nice gamers.
“The complete Penguins group is honored to welcome Marc-Andre Fleury again to the ice in Pittsburgh,” Dubas stated in a press launch. “This previous 12 months everybody witnessed how beloved and revered Marc is within the recreation of hockey, however the adoration goes past his accolades and profession. Marc means a lot to our group, our followers and the Metropolis of Pittsburgh due to the individual he’s and the instance he set. The Penguins really feel he and his household are most-deserving of this chance to have a good time this full-circle second again the place it began in entrance of the black and gold devoted.”
Fleury went 375-216-68 in his 12 seasons with the Penguins, serving to them win the Stanley Cup thrice throughout that span. He’s the franchise’s all-time chief in primarily each goaltending class.
His divorce from the Penguins was a reasonably civil one in 2017, as he in the end requested that they commerce him to the then-expansion Vegas group that badly needed him to be their centerpiece. Former normal supervisor Jim Rutherford requested Fleury if he needed to be traded to a unique group throughout the 2016-17 season due to the emergence of Matt Murray. With the enlargement draft months away, there was no means the Penguins might hold each. On the time, Fleury advised Rutherford he was going to remain in Pittsburgh for the rest of the season to win one other Stanley Cup.
That’s precisely what occurred.
Fleury returned to Pittsburgh for a handful of video games following the commerce, however didn’t all the time play properly there and acknowledged that he didn’t like going through the Penguins. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust stay on the roster from his Pittsburgh days.
“I don’t prefer it, enjoying towards them,” he stated in 2023. “These are my buddies.”
Almost a decade later, he’s coming again once more, one last time.
(Photograph: Gregory Shamus / NHLI through Getty Pictures)
