Why Pittsburgh bet the future on a teen goalie
Only one goalie in NHL history has more wins than Marc-Andre Fleury. Not a bad payoff for a draft-day gamble in 2003, when the Penguins traded up to grab an 18-year-old from Cape Breton at No. 1 in a class loaded with future stars. Centers and defensemen usually go that high. Goalies almost never do. Pittsburgh went against the grain because it had to. The team needed a fresh start and a face in net.
Inside the room back then, the message was simple: build from the crease out. The Penguins’ leadership believed that locking down the goal would steady the whole rebuild. Eddie Olczyk, the coach at the time, framed it as a foundational move. Greg Malone, who ran scouting, would later say it fit the moment and the roster. The Penguins weren’t just drafting a player; they were staking their turnaround on a teenager’s poise.
The trade-up with Florida to reach No. 1 raised eyebrows around the league. That 2003 draft was a monster—future All-Stars everywhere. Pittsburgh still chose the goalie. It was a bet on temperament as much as talent: Fleury’s feet were quiet, his reads were quick, and he didn’t carry mistakes with him for long. For a club that had slipped from contender to struggler, that steadiness mattered as much as the highlights.
Fleury’s early years weren’t storybook perfect. He bounced between the NHL and the AHL (thanks in part to the 2004–05 lockout) and took his lumps behind a growing roster. But the blueprint came together fast. Over the next two drafts came Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, and by 2008 Pittsburgh was back in the Final. In 2009, Fleury sealed the deal with a last-second, body-first stop on Nicklas Lidstrom in Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena. That save is still the snapshot of the franchise’s reset.
The legacy in Pittsburgh—and everywhere he went after
By the time he left Pittsburgh, Fleury had written his name across the team’s record book: wins, shutouts, games played. He won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins (2009, 2016, 2017), shifting from young cornerstone to veteran teammate who could carry a round or hand off the net without sulking. When Matt Murray got hurt in 2017, Fleury stepped in and slammed the door through two series. When Murray was ready, Fleury supported the switch. That’s leadership without speeches.
The story didn’t end in Pittsburgh. In the 2017 expansion draft, Vegas built its room around Fleury’s presence and swagger. He took the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in year one and later earned the 2021 Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie. The 500th win came on the road in Montreal—perfect theater for a kid who grew up across the river in Sorel. He made brief stops in Chicago and then Minnesota, where he finished his 21st season and called time on a career that will land in the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
He didn’t just win; he won everywhere. He’s second all-time in NHL wins, a club that includes only the very best. He collected Olympic gold with Canada in 2010 as part of a stacked goaltending group. And in the postseason, he piled up series that flipped because he did—timely stops, long stretches without a mistake, and a calm that bled into the bench.
What made it work goes beyond numbers. Fleury embraced the pressure of being a No. 1 overall goalie—rare air shared in recent memory with only a couple of names, most notably 2000’s Rick DiPietro. He took the sting of a World Juniors miscue in 2003 and used it as fuel. He kept the playful side too: pranks in practice, the grin after a breakaway stop, the handshake line jokes after a long night. That stuff sounds small until you live it for nine months a year. Teammates swear it matters.
Pittsburgh’s choice in 2003 also shaped everything around the ice. A true No. 1 steadied coaching decisions, masked a young defense’s mistakes, and bought time for the roster to grow into itself. Drafting Crosby and Malkin changed the ceiling; drafting Fleury changed the floor. He gave them a base—nights when two goals against meant two points anyway, and stretches where a bad week didn’t spiral into a bad month.
As he steps away, the family perspective hits home. His wife, Veronique, says their kids watch the old draft videos that agent Allan Walsh sends over. It’s a reminder of how long their dad has been at this, how fast the years stack up in a career that started before they were born. For Penguins fans, those clips are more than nostalgia. They’re the origin story of the modern era.
Key mileposts from a 21-season run:
- 2003: Drafted first overall after Pittsburgh trades up to No. 1.
- 2009: Game 7 stop on Nicklas Lidstrom delivers the Penguins’ first Cup of the Crosby-Malkin era.
- 2016–2017: A vital part of back-to-back championships, toggling between starter and trusted No. 2.
- 2017–2018: Expansion-draft pick who leads Vegas to the Stanley Cup Final in Year 1.
- 2021: Wins the Vezina Trophy; reaches 500 career wins later that year in Montreal.
- 2020s: Climbs to second on the NHL’s all-time wins list and finishes in Minnesota after stops in Chicago and Vegas.
The draft-day logic from 2003 aged well: start in goal. Two decades later, the resume reads like a validation of that risk—three Cups in Pittsburgh, a Vezina in the desert, and a standard for how a superstar can carry a room without making it about himself. If you’re searching for the moment the Penguins turned the page, it began in Nashville, when they bet everything on the calmest player in the building.
