A few months back, Senshot.com wrote a piece on whether the Ottawa Senators should pick goaltender, Yaroslav Askarov. In the article, it is mentioned how goaltenders are very hard to project. This is not just when drafting them but also trying to predict how they will perform the next season. The article even said, “Marc-Andre Fleury isn’t that elite player people tout him to be” and it showed in his stats:
Now this is Hall of Fame material, to me. pic.twitter.com/3KMD9e2n1f
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) March 29, 2020
Marc-Andre Fleury’s Great Season
Marc-Andre Fleury, currently with the Vegas Golden Knights, had been overrated for a while. He didn’t have many good seasons, with only a single really good one, though he had a few really good playoff performances. But, the rest of his seasons were mediocre at best. Well, that was until this season where he is now showing to be an elite goalie. This proves a point earlier on how goalies are hard to predict.
2020-21 season
This season, Fleury was elite and finished with the highest GSAx (Goals-Saved Above Expected) in the league with 19.2. The difficulty of his workload wasn’t easy either. Fleury was 19th in the league in terms of xG Against/60 with 2.32. This is also shown in the stat HDSA (High-Danger Shots against)/60, where his team allowed 7.68 when Fleury was on the ice. He was able to back his team up and save most of them, finishing the season with an HDSV% (High-Danger Save Percentage) of .853%, 11th in the league (at 5v5 and out of goalies who played at least 500 TOI). His win-loss column looked pretty solid as well, putting up 26 wins and he lost just 10 games. His save percentage was the highest in his career with .928% and his GAA was under two, for the first time in his career, with 1.98. Overall, he had an excellent season, probably the best in his career and was awarded for this, after he was nominated as a Vezina Trophy candidate.
2019-20 season
In the 2019-20 season, his GSAx of -14.03 was abysmal. In this statistical category, he was the fifth-worst in the league. To make matters worse, he lost the starting role to Lehner in the playoffs. So last year’s playoffs things weren’t looking too good for Marc-Andre Fleury and his agent was clearly upset as well. There was also a time last year where the Vegas Golden Knights were willing to trade a second along with Fleury to another team. That was to take him and his seven million dollar AAV contract onwards. It seemed like no team was willing to bet on him, as he ended up not being traded. The team must be pretty happy to have kept him as he has performed at an elite level this season.
2021 playoffs
Currently, in the playoffs, he holds an SV% of .932, at 5v5, which is 10th in the league. Just looking at this stat doesn’t tell the whole story as his GSAx of 3.69 is decent, 4th in the league. However, his team is suppressing shots pretty well against a powerhouse with the Avalanche so his workload is easier compared to other goalies. This is shown in the stat xGA/60, which is 1.87, 15th out of goalies who have at least 100 TOI. The team also suppresses HD shots pretty well as well, allowing only 6.61 per 60 minutes, 14th in the league. However, he turns away most of the HD shots that come at him, having an HDSV% of .868, which was 5th.
Minnesota Wild
In the series against the Minnesota Wild, he started in every game and made some timely big saves, such as the one below, which helped his team win. The series went to 7 games and Fleury started in all of them and finished with a 4-3 record. Throughout the series, his stats were pretty solid finishing with a GSAx of 2.34. His SV% and HDSV% were pretty solid as well, posting a .933 SV% and a .857 HDSV%.
Colorado Avalanche
Although he helped the Golden Knights win in the first round, Peter Deboer started Robin Lehner in game one. Lehner went on to allow seven goals in game one, making way for Fleury to start the next game. In this game, he allowed three goals and the team fell in overtime. In the next game, Fleury didn’t have a great night, allowing three goals in 25 shots and had a GSAx of -0.05. He did have a .923 SV% at 5v5 as two of the goals against came when the team was short-handed. In the next four games, his stability in the net helped his team win all four games and storm back to take the series. He finished the series with a GSAx of 0.87 and .913 SV%.
Conclusion
Up until now, Marc-Andre Fleury has obviously had a great season. His team made it to the semi-finals and is going to play against the Montreal Canadiens. In this matchup, Fleury will go head-to-head against a hot goalie in Carey Price. Therefore, Fleury will need to continue, or possibly elevate his game to the next level in order to beat the Canadiens. Nevertheless, with the way he’s been playing as of late, it looks like his team has a chance to compete for the cup.
The stats above are from NaturalStatTrick and Evolving-Hockey.
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