Sunday 4 May 2008

Marc-Andre Fleury





Playing career
Fleury was drafted first overall by the
Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and is widely considered to be one of the premier young talents in the league.[2] [3]
He made his debut in 2003-04, and played 21 games. He was rotated regularly and split the season with fellow netminders Jean-Sébastien Aubin and Sebastien Caron. He immediately began to show promising results with a 46 save performance against Los Angeles and 31 saves in a 4-3 win over Dominik Hašek and the Detroit Red Wings.[4] His first NHL shutout came October 30, 2003 in a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.[4] However, as the season progressed, his performance began to sink, largely due to Pittsburgh's poor defense-[4] the team regularly gave up over 30 shots per game, and rarely managed to become an offensive threat.[5]
During the labour dispute, Fleury played for the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, where he posted a 26-19-4 record with a goals against average of 2.52 and a save percentage of 0.901.
In
2005-06, Fleury started the season at the AHL affiliate, but was called up for the fourth game against Buffalo Sabres on October 10 to replace an injured Jocelyn Thibault. Because of management concerns over the payment of an NHL appearance bonus, he continued to move up and down until November 28 when he was called up to play in Pittsburgh for the rest of the season. While his team fared poorly throughout the year, Fleury's statistics remained relatively good. The Penguins finished last in the Eastern Conference and with the worst defense, allowing 316 goals,[6] but Fleury managed to hold a save percentage of 0.898, which was about .020 higher than Sebastien Caron or Jocelyn Thibault.
Despite playing behind a very shaky defense, Fleury was able to impress the team management with his technique and performance. During the summer of 2006, he signed a two-year contract extension worth $2.59 million.
[7]
On March 1, 2007 Fleury became the first Penguins goaltender since Tom Barrasso in the 1997-98 NHL season to record thirty wins in a season by defeating the New York Rangers 4-3, in a shootout.
On
April 7, 2007 Fleury joined Barrasso as the only Penguin goaltenders to win forty games in a season by beating the Rangers 2-1 in Pittsburgh's regular season finale.
On
January 25, 2008 Fleury's #29 was retired by his junior team, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

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About Me

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Very Proud Husband and Father. A fan of Battle of the Planet and the Borough Market area of London.