Golden Knights Fleeced. Marc-Andre Fleury to Play for Blackhawks

The Blackhawks acquired a legend in Marc-Andre Fleury for a minor league fourth liner.

Marc-Andre Fleury will play in the Windy City.

After a few tense days, Fleury has cleared the air and confirmed that he will play in 2021-22, making the trade with the Golden Knights potentially the fleece of the offseason. Fleury will bring a consistent, experienced presence in the net, something the Blackhawks missed last season. He is still capable of stealing games for his team and with a revamped defense corps, the Blackhawks are looking to make a post-season run.

The notable additions to the roster this season are:

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Jonathan Toews

Seth Jones

Marc-Andre Fleury

Tyler Johnson

Jake McCabe

This is an great list of guys who can make an impact to this young, skillful Blackhawks roster. There are three Stanley Cup champions and two proven NHLers taking up spots that were previously taken by prospects. Seeing as the Blackhawks may add more firepower to the roster with Henrik Borgstrom and Lukas Reichel, this team could be a scary team offensively AND defensively with a reliable goaltending tandem. They were only two of these three categories before.

With this announcement, the Blackhawks are assumed to be contenders, nothing less. They are expected to make the playoffs and perhaps win a round for the first time since 2015. These are not farfetched expectations for the team, either. Their problems last season (lineup-wise) were the lack of defense in general and the lack of reliable center depth. Stan Bowman added the pieces this team needed and went further to fleece the Golden Knights for the elite, reliable goaltender you need to win games.

The pieces are set, the lineup is starting to take shape. Stan Bowman is going for broke to finish the final decade of the Toews-Patrick Kane era on a strong note. Could the Blackhawks be Stanley Cup contenders this season? If all goes well coaching-wise, there is no reason to think otherwise.

The 2021-22 Blackhawks season is the first in a while that fans can look at it with anticipation, not another mediocre “middle-of-the-pack” end of the season.