NHL
Fleury Retires
PITTSBURGH — When I first heard about the Marc-Andre Fleury reunion plans, I will admit, I was a little skeptical. It felt a bit forced, maybe a bit over the top.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The only thing it was? Perfect.
Sometimes sports fans and media alike lose track of the very simple reality that, in the end, this is the entertainment business. Sure, wins and losses matter a whole lot. So do goals, statistics and everything else. In the end, however, arenas wouldn’t be filled if people weren’t being entertained. We wouldn’t be watching sports on TV every night of our lives if we weren’t being entertained.
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I ask you, which goaltender in history has been more entertaining than Fleury? Think about it. I didn’t ask who the best goaltender ever was. There have been a handful who objectively were better than Fleury, though not many. But who was more entertaining? Who oozed star power and charisma like him? Who kept you on pins and needles like him? Who made allowing goals every bit as entertaining as stopping them?
There has absolutely never been anyone like Fleury. I have long believed that, while a couple of athletes in Penguins history — namely Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby — have been more worshipped by the fan base, no member of the Penguins has possessed a visceral connection with the fan base like Fleury.
He’s the most vulnerable superstar in hockey history. When he would leave the crease, a whole city would panic. When he would give up a bad goal, you’d crumble right there with him. When he’d make a routine save look spectacular, you’d love it all the more. When he’d thank the post or make an inappropriate gesture with his goalie stick, you’d laugh.
For a generation of Pittsburghers, watching a young Fleury put on a show would make you feel like you were watching your kid play. He has that ability to connect with people that is entirely different than any athlete we’ve ever experienced.
All of those attributes were on display against the Blue Jackets on Saturday. When Fleury took the ice in the third period, the place went bonkers.
Flower takes the ice. I have never seen anything quite like it. pic.twitter.com/UUyzq3FxUr
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) September 28, 2025
He received a hearty ovation every time he touched the puck. He received a standing ovation every time he stopped the puck. It was pure theater.
Even when he finally allowed a goal in a shootout that was pre-arranged, he did push-ups seconds before the shot. Just because.
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There were several chants from the crowd with Fleury in the game. They included:
• “Fleury! Fleury!”
• “One more year! One more year!”
• “Goalie fight! Goalie fight!”
And finally, the best one of all.
“Thank you, Flower!”
Fleury gave a typically amusing answer when asked about the chants of one more year.
Flower on “one more year” chants: “Thank you. I am tired. My hip is sore.” pic.twitter.com/3R7wPovfHT
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) September 28, 2025
“Thank you,” he said. “I am tired. My hip is sore.”
Make no mistake, this is the end.
There will be talk about Fleury coming out of retirement because we are living in an age of mediocre goaltending. If teams like the Oilers aren’t asking about Fleury, they’re doing something wrong.
But he’s done. It was very clear in speaking with him following the game, and even clearer when he looked at his wife and children and smiled.
It ended as it should have.
Dan Muse, who was so impressed with Fleury he visited with reporters after his press conference just to talk about how “awesome” it was, wisely put Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Kris Letang on the ice for the final 30 seconds of the 4-1 win.
The Penguins from 2008 to 2017 are the greatest generation in franchise history. They won the Stanley Cup three times, went to the Final four times, and, more than anything, have been the most important NHL franchise of this century. Crosby is the best player of his time, but the Penguins don’t win those Cups without Fleury. They aren’t the Penguins without Fleury. Before Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal came around, there was Fleury.
You don’t have a foundation without a goaltender, and in him, they always had hope, always had star power in a position that we don’t typically associate it with.
It was a night for nostalgia, and no city does nostalgia better than Pittsburgh.
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This, however, was an event unlike any other. Fleury was drafted 22 years ago. It would have been like watching Terry Bradshaw unleash a few bombs during a 1992 Steelers preseason game. Let that sink in. Think children of the ’90s would have enjoyed witnessing that in Pittsburgh? I would say so.
All of which got me thinking again about this event, this most unprecedented of evenings. It was for the fans. It was for Fleury. It was a tip of the cap to the greatest generation of Penguins hockey.
Young Fleury did indeed make you feel like you were watching your child in net.
I looked around the crowd tonight and saw plenty of little kids wearing No. 29 sweaters. They probably don’t know much about Fleury, and some of them weren’t even alive when Fleury played in Pittsburgh.
Someday, though, they’ll appreciate what they saw this night. They saw the man back in his crease, holding the crowd in the palm of his hand.
Not many athletes would warrant that kind of an evening. This is the preseason, when teams are eagerly preparing for a new campaign. There’s a new coach. There’s a rebuild underway. Under such circumstances, it often wouldn’t have been appropriate to pause the season for such an event.
This was different. This was Fleury. And this is the entertainment business.
Sports are just that: a business. We learned that the hard way in 2017 when Fleury was traded to the Golden Knights because of a stuffy thing called the “NHL Expansion Draft.” Doesn’t get more business-like than that, right?
I spoke with Jim Rutherford after the game and told him it was too bad he wasn’t here for the occasion. Rutherford responded, “I watched every second of it. It was awesome.”
Eddie Johnston, at 89, still the godfather of the Pittsburgh Penguins, gave Fleury a big hug in the locker room when it was all over.
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To Rutherford and Johnston, Fleury probably does feel like their kid. To a new generation of Penguins fans who won’t even understand what they saw tonight until years from now, it probably was much different, though no less special.
We were all entertained tonight. Fleury is a gift, as both a goaltender and a person. He gave us a final gift on Saturday, and the city is all the better for it.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
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Josh Yohe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. Josh joined The Athletic in 2017 after covering the Penguins for a decade, first for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and then for DKPittsburghSports.com. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshYohe_PGH
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