What does the market look like for Fleury?

Tampa Bay were in a similar position to the Penguins this season with a strong goaltender originally starting out as the number one in net, only to be replaced by an improving rookie goaltender. As a result the Tampa Bay Lightning traded Ben Bishop yesterday to the LA Kings for very little. In total they traded him for Peter Budaj, Erik Cernak and a pick.

The Penguins have been involved in talks around Fleury's future to the media throughout the season with many believing the best time to trade him would have been on Free Agency Day last year. The reasoning rightly being that there are more likely going to be open spots for him there. He wasn't traded and he is still with the team.

A number of teams have been mentioned throughout the season with those being Calgary, Dallas and, to a lesser extent, St.Louis. The latter team has come up more recently due to talk that the Penguins are interested, alongside the Capitals, in Kevin Shattenkirk. The logic is that any deal seeing Shattenkirk's cap hit coming to the Pens will need to see a fairly large contract going back and Fleury is the only one that really fits. Do I see St.Louis going for him? No. I don't think we will get Shattenkirk and I think the asking price will be too much to realistically want to achieve.

Dallas have had goaltending issues all season despite having the most expensive goaltending tandem in the league. Quality has not come with that price tag. That has made them a prime topic for trade discussion. The most likely situation is that one of Lehtonen or Niemi would come back in either a straight swap or as part of a bigger deal. However, the Stars are out of the play offs by 9 points and with a game extra played so I don't see them making moves. Even if they do trade for Fleury they won't get extra cap room to spend on re-signing players this summer, so there is no real benefit for them. 

That brings up the last team, Calgary. The most likely destination. Brian Elliot would almost certainly come back and due to the cap restraints on Calgary right now they would need to send back a similar sized contract too. Dennis Wideman is the most likely candidate due to the Penguins wish to improve on defence. However, with the Flames in the play off spots, will they want to trade away and affect their chances of making it?

In all, there aren't really many landing spots for Fleury which is a worry. But the last two options the  Penguins have if he isn't traded are to either buy him out or ask him to waive his NMC so that they can protect Murray instead. The next 48 hours will be hectic.