Golden Knights sign Marc-Andre Fleury to 3-year, $21 million extension

By Jesse Granger

Published Friday, July 13, 2018 | 9:11 a.m.

Updated Friday, July 13, 2018 | 2:28 p.m.

The Golden Knights have signed goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a three-year contract extension to keep him in Las Vegas through the 2021-22 season, the team announced today.

The 33-year-old netminder will get a raise in his annual salary from $5.75 million per season to $7 million. It makes him the highest paid player on the team and after the way Fleury played last season, it’s well-deserved.

"Marc-Andre embodies all of the qualities you want in a player and in a Vegas Golden Knight," general manager George McPhee said. "He’s talented, he’s a hard-working leader, he plays well in big games, he enjoys the game and he’s a very humble person and a great teammate."

Fleury finished tied for first in the NHL in goals against average (2.24) and second in save percentage (.927) amongst goalies with at least 40 games played. His play was even better in the playoffs as he racked up a career-high four shutouts with a 12-3 record in the Western Conference to lead the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final.

"This team gave me a second opportunity in my career and I’ll be forever grateful for that," Fleury said. "I love to do what I do. The success that we had over the season, and winning makes everything better. The fans, how they’ve supported us from day one have been great."

The day after losing to the Capitals in Game 5 Fleury said he’d like to finish his career with the Golden Knights. Today’s extension certainly helps with that.

Prior to the extension Fleury had only the upcoming season left on his deal. He will now remain under contract with the Golden Knights until he is 36.

"Rather than just (have Fleury) play through another season and have those distractions," McPhee said. "He was a guy we knew from day one that we were going to want to extend, so we made an effort to extend him right away at our first opportunity."

With unrestricted free agency looming, players in the final year of a contract are often the subject of trade rumors and possibilities thrown around. Fleury had enough of that in his final season in Pittsburgh, which eventually landed him as a backup behind Matt Murray and eventually sent to Vegas in the expansion draft.

"It was something I wanted so that when the season starts you aren’t thinking about the rumors or where you can be traded to," Fleury said. "I’ve been through that already and to have that security to be here for a long time was big for me."

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.