ST. PAUL, Minn. — Marc-André Fleury was the third of the Minnesota Wild’s distinguished alumni to get introduced before Saturday’s ceremonial opening faceoff.
There was Alex Goligoski and Eric Staal, both of whom also played in their 1,000th game in a Minnesota sweater. But Fleury, 41, received the loudest ovation from the sellout crowd at Grand Casino Arena, a stick tap to not only his Hall of Fame-worthy career but also just how beloved he was in only 3 1/2 seasons here.
Fleury retired after last season, but there’s a part of him that wishes he was still between the pipes.
“I still miss it,” Fleury told The Athletic on Saturday night. “I still miss playing, miss the boys, miss the compete, trying to have a goal of winning. The feeling of winning a game. I miss that for sure.”
Thank you to Minnesota Wild alumni Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex Goligoski and Eric Staal for joining us tonight pic.twitter.com/NUwBWBDqEX
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 25, 2026
Fleury has won more games (575) than all but one goalie in NHL history, and 64 of those came with the Wild. The three-time Stanley Cup champion certainly enjoys some aspects of retirement, such as getting to be in his in-season Twin Cities home more with his wife, Veronique, and their three children, Estelle, Scarlett and James. He’s able to go to their school functions and sporting events. He brought the kids to Saturday’s game, where they sat in a suite.
But Fleury admitted walking away from the game has been tougher than he thought.
“Last year, I was done, in my head,” he said. “But being home and not having that goal to get something, try to go win something, it’s not easy.”
That raises the question of whether a team could lure Fleury out of retirement this season. A handful of teams have called him, with a couple making legitimate offers and still checking in with him on a regular basis.
Is there any chance he plays again?
“Probably not,” Fleury said. “A couple teams asked. But I just said, ‘No.’ It’s tough for some reasons.”
One is clearly his family. If he were to sign with a team, it’d have to be before the March 6 trade deadline for him to be playoff eligible. He doesn’t want to leave his wife and kids behind for potentially 3 ½ months.
Another reason: Fleury is extremely humble and was almost embarrassed by the fanfare and goodbyes he received in many arenas last season. He wouldn’t want that again, nor to have people saying, “After all that, you’re back?”
But a third reason — and to be clear, Fleury didn’t say this, so we don’t know for sure — could be his unofficial role with the Wild organization.
General manager and president of hockey operations Bill Guerin, a former teammate of Fleury’s in Pittsburgh, has welcomed him with open arms into his front office in a type of shadowing situation. At many home games, Fleury sits in the executive suite in the press box alongside management. He just traveled to Arizona to be part of the team’s midseason organizational scouting meetings, where he got to hear and add his two cents on lots of proprietary information.
He’s also taken the ice multiple times with injured Wild players to prep them for returns throughout the season.
“Billy said come whenever,” Fleury said. “I get to meet the scouts, player development, the coaches. It’s good to see that side of the business, right? Then maybe next season I can fit somewhere.”
So it could be awkward for Fleury to sign with another team at this point. Just imagine if he signed with a Western Conference team that the Wild end up facing in the playoffs.
But what if there was a fit — on the ice — this season with the Wild?
Considering how close he is to the organization, Fleury does provide a pretty convenient and capable fill-in just in case either Filip Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt is injured.
Or consider this: If Wallstedt were to be traded, Fleury could be an option rather than trading for a backup goalie in another capacity. Gustavsson, who signed an extension in September, has a full no-move clause and is signed through 2030-31. That’s why the Wild would be open to dealing Wallstedt, their top prospect, if the right deal comes along (especially for a No. 1-caliber center).
In that scenario, Fleury could slide right in. He’s already been a very good goalie partner and mentor for Gustavsson. He wouldn’t have to uproot his family, who are in the Twin Cities during hockey season. And Fleury would get to compete for a team that looks like a contender.
Somebody got Flower. Looks like @Gorgamatic21’s handwriting pic.twitter.com/hLbmQkak0K
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 25, 2026
Plus, with both Gustavsson and Wallstedt representing Sweden at the Olympics, Fleury says he’s agreed to be one of the Wild’s goalies when the non-Olympians resume practice starting Feb. 17. That would sure be a good way for Fleury to get his game in order in case the Wild — or another team — try again to sign him before the trade deadline.
To be clear, this is total conjecture. We know for a fact the Wild haven’t broached this option at all with Fleury. But given Fleury has admitted that he misses playing and feels at times “lost” and will get the opportunity next month to get into game shape, it got our minds churning — because if Wallstedt is dealt or one of their two goalies is injured in Milan, the Wild would need a goalie.
Even if Fleury remains retired, this year is likely not the last you’ve seen of him in the area, especially if he locks in a position with the Wild, perhaps as a player development adviser like Goligoski.
“I’m no coach, you know,” he said, smiling. “I could help younger guys, younger goalies. We’ll see.”
Trade mutterings
With the Wild done with their scouting meetings, you can bet Guerin will be aggressively looking for a top-six center. It does help that Joel Eriksson Ek returned from a lower-body injury Thursday, but there’s no doubt Guerin is motivated and would use picks and prospects to make a trade if it were for the right player or players.
As we said in last week’s insider, while they will likely have interest in Vincent Trocheck and league sources say the Wild aren’t on his no-trade list, nothing was imminent over the weekend, and Guerin will likely do check-ins for any top center in the NHL. We can see him calling on anybody from Robert Thomas, Trocheck and J.T. Miller to Nico Hischier and Shane Pinto. Or even veterans such as Ryan O’Reilly and Claude Giroux.
One way to make a big trade easier would be to acquire a 2026 first-round pick (they traded theirs in the Quinn Hughes deal), which makes us wonder if they’d offer David Jiricek to the Nashville Predators for a first. Remember, the Predators apparently offered two firsts to Columbus for Jiricek in November 2024 before the Wild swooped in.
Why will four Wild games be simulcast over the air?
As we know, FanDuel’s future is very much up in the air, so it was striking last week when the Wild announced that four FanDuel Sports North telecasts will also be simulcast over the air on KSTP-TV (Channel 5) and KSTC-TV (Channel 45). The games are Thursday vs. Calgary (Channel 45), Feb. 27 at Utah (Channel 5), April 11 at Nashville (Channel 45) and April 14 vs. Anaheim (Channel 45).
“We are extremely excited to offer fans all around the State of Hockey the opportunity to watch four Minnesota Wild games for free on KSTP-TV and KSTC-TV this season,” said Mitch Helgerson, the Wild’s chief revenue officer. “We’re thrilled to expand our reach and deliver must-watch hockey to more Minnesotans than ever before.”
The games will also be available on KSAX-TV in Alexandria, WDIO-TV in Duluth, KRWF-TV in Redwood Falls and KAAL-TV in Rochester. In addition, Gray Media will air the four games on its stations throughout the Upper Midwest, including the following markets in Minnesota (Mankato); Iowa (Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Ottumwa and Sioux City); North Dakota (Minot-Bismarck and Fargo); South Dakota (Rapid City and Sioux Falls) and Wisconsin (La Crosse-Eau Claire, Green Bay, Madison and Wausau).
The Wild have been working the past two years to find alternatives in case FanDuel goes under. They don’t know if FanDuel will get through this season, let alone be around next season. So the alternatives they’ve investigated are streaming games themselves or putting games over the air. This is clearly a guinea pig to see how it’ll work if it ever gets to this point permanently.
On Xfinity, games on FanDuel have been elevated to upper-tier packages, so the Wild’s reach to their fan base is more limited than ever. So the Wild are testing the waters to try to get their product to a much larger audience because over-the-air games are available to theoretically everybody, and their current agreement with FanDuel allows for the Wild to do this.
Mike Foligno always a phone call away
In two games last week at Buffalo and Toronto, Marcus Foligno scored four times, including his first career hat trick against the Maple Leafs. The performances came with his dad, former NHL player and coach Mike Foligno, in the stands.
Marcus talked a lot after the Toronto game how this has been a weird year. He got off to a tough start, not scoring in his first 30 games. But he really started to play well in November until sustaining a lower-body injury — coincidentally in a road game against the Chicago Blackhawks, where his brother Nick plays.
Marcus Foligno with friends and family after last week’s hat trick in Toronto, including father Mike and aunt Teresa over his left shoulder and PK Subban far right. (Courtesy of Marcus Foligno)
This is Foligno’s 15th season and ninth with the Wild. He may be 34, but there are still times he leans on his dad when things aren’t going well, like earlier this season.
“It’s not so much just advice. It’s also telling him to change the mindset a little bit,” Mike Foligno said after watching his son pot three goals last Monday. “For the most part, he and his teammates have to do the work to get out of these kinds of things, and you can’t get out of them unless you work hard. It’s part of being a professional, right? You have to be self-motivated.
“I’m just proud of him, the fact that he’s responded well. And the team is winning, and that’s really important. So there’s always a little bit less pressure when the team is winning. And now that he’s sorted through, I always say that when you get that first break as far as the goose egg, things just seem to come a little easier. Take a little bit more of a stress off and start really focusing on what to do with the game.”