Marc-Andre Fleury makes his first official statement since trade to Chicago

The main focus of the hockey world Tuesday has been the trade of Marc-Andre Fleury from the Vegas Golden Knights to the Chicago Blackhawks. In a one-for-one deal, with no salary retention, Vegas shipped Fleury to Chicago for Mikael Hakkarainen, who has no experience at the NHL level. The question now is will Fleury actually report to the Blackhawks or will the 35-year-old decide to retire. Fleury has made his first official statement since the trade, but he did not address that.

"I want to thank all my amazing fans in Vegas and my teammates for four incredible years together," said Fleury. 'You embraced me and my family from day one and made playing games at the Fortress one of the great joys of my life. We will miss playing in Vegas so much but I am grateful for my time in the city."

Fleury's fans, and many hockey fans in general, aren't pleased with the way this whole thing went down. It was a pure cap dump on the part of the Golden Knights. And, while that's not uncommon in hockey, it doesn't happen often with a reigning Vezina trophy winner. Fleury is also as class act, as you can tell with the above statement, and a well-respected player around the league. As for the return of Hakkarainen, no offense to him at all, but it was essentially a throw in so Vegas could say they got something. In fact, he'll remain in the Blackhawks system for now as was made clear by Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon, although the Golden Knights own his contract. For all the respect and admiration he gets as a player, it feels like Fleury has been essentially tossed aside like trash after Vegas felt they were done with him. There were similar circumstances with Fleury in Pittsburgh before he was taken by the Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft.

Fleury's agent Allan Walsh has said his client will wait a few days to decide and announce his plans for next season. Walsh has been uncharacteristically quiet on this trade. He's very outspoken and has stuck up for Fleury publicly in the past.



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SOURCE REVEALS HOW FLEURY FOUND OUT THAT HE HAD BEEN TRADED; HE COULD ELECT TO RETIRE