A Definitive Ranking of the 10 Best Teammates in Marc-André Fleury's Career
We're going to see goalie Marc-André Fleury put a close on his career Saturday in the Pittsburgh Penguins' preseason matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Watching a great goalie and human being like Fleury finish like this is awesome, and it also prompts us to reflect on his incredible career and all the amazing teammates he's had over the years.
Not only was Fleury an incredible goalie, but he has also had the privilege of playing alongside an incredible number of all-time greats since entering the NHL in 2003. He's got a Hall of Fame résumé and a lot of guys who helped him win 575 career games who'd be there with him.
But who among them over his years in Pittsburgh, Vegas, Chicago, and Minnesota was the best of them all? We've compiled a list of his 10 best teammates and ranked them as well.
For the record, we're not ranking them on how they were when Fleury started playing them and are considering their full resume in the NHL.
Let's roll.
10. John LeClair
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Of all the teams John LeClair is known best as a member of (Montréal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers), it was the final two years of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins that allowed him to be teammates with Marc-André Fleury and sneak onto our list.
From 2005 to 2007, LeClair wrapped up his outstanding NHL career with the Penguins, something that probably didn't sit well with Flyers fans, considering he signed there as a free agent after the lockout ended in 2005. LeClair joined veterans Mark Recchi and Ziggy Palffy in Pittsburgh as the Penguins looked to surround rookie Sidney Crosby with veteran firepower. It also provided help for 20-year-old Fleury in goal as well.
LeClair was most renowned for his time with the Flyers as part of the "Legion of Doom" line with Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg, but before that, he was a force around the net for the Canadiens and helped them win the Stanley Cup, his only one, in 1993. He finished his career with 406 goals and 819 points in 967 career games.
9. Jonathan Toews
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Fleury's brief time in Chicago allowed him to cross paths with a few incredible players in 2021-2022. One of the biggest names that year was captain Jonathan Toews.
That season in Chicago wasn't a very good one, and Fleury wound up getting traded to Minnesota during it, but Toews' career at that time was beginning to take a difficult turn as he dealt with various ailments that sapped his energy and led to him stepping away from hockey for a couple of years.
But before that happened, Toews was among the best defensive centers in the NHL. His dominance at the pivot and as a leader on the top line for the Blackhawks helped establish them as one of the best teams in the NHL and won them three Stanley Cups. Toews won the Conn Smythe in 2010 and the Selke Trophy in 2013, as well as the Mark Messier Award in 2015.
That Toews is landing in our rankings this early only helps highlight how many incredible players have crossed paths with Fleury throughout his career. What's just as amazing is that we're going to see Toews return to the NHL this season with the Winnipeg Jets.
8. Kris Letang
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Clearly, defensemen are vital to a goalie's success and having elite blue liners makes their lives a lot easier. Kris Letang teaming up with Marc-André Fleury for 11 seasons in Pittsburgh meant the two of them had the opportunity to help each other out in significant ways for a long time.
Letang's elite ability to utilize his speed, skating, and puck-moving talents has helped the Penguins escape their own end and turn it into offense in the other direction, making him one of the most entertaining blue-liners to watch in the NHL throughout his career.
Over his 19 seasons in the NHL (how old do you feel?), Letang has scored 175 goals and put up 772 points, which puts him 23rd all-time among defensemen in scoring.
With the years put in together, the bond between Fleury and Letang is well beyond strong and seeing them have success together in Pittsburgh helped add a heavy flavor of Québec to the team.
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7. Sergei Gonchar
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It's hard to find defensemen who put up boatloads of points and yet remained underappreciated for how great their careers were, and yet, here's Sergei Gonchar, the best defenseman to play in front of Marc-André Fleury.
Gonchar is 19th all-time in points among defensemen (811), and he's one of 24 defensemen to score 200 or more goals in their career (220). For five seasons with the Penguins, Gonchar teamed up with Fleury and advanced to two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, winning the championship in 2009.
Gonchar was the prototypical puck-moving defenseman with offensive upside and his leadership and mobility while with Pittsburgh helped educate a young Kris Letang into taking over that role in the years to come. Letang couldn't have asked for a better hands-on instructor than Gonchar and that tutelage paid massive dividends.
Even though Gonchar had his greatest seasons earlier in his career with the Washington Capitals, it was with the Penguins that he was finally able to capture the Stanley Cup. After 20 years in the NHL, the only thing we're waiting for now is his call to the Hall of Fame.
6. Marián Hossa
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It lasted for one season, from 2007 to 2008, but it was a season that very nearly became legendary for Marián Hossa and Marc-André Fleury. Their run together to the Stanley Cup Final ended in heartbreak as they lost to the Detroit Red Wings. It added bitter irony for Hossa when he landed in Detroit the following season and then lost to Fleury and the Penguins in the 2009 playoffs.
Fortunately for Hossa, he went to Chicago after that and cemented his legacy as one of the best high-scoring two-way wingers in the league and a multiple-time Cup-winner. He finished his career 61st all-time in scoring (1,134), and his 525 career goals are 37th most all-time, and an unfortunate sudden retirement in 2017 caused him to miss out on tacking on even more to his totals.
He was deservedly elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020 and while that spot in the Hall was secured during his time in Chicago, the fuse for it was lit during his back-to-back Cup Final appearances in 2008 and 2009 and how dominant he was with the Penguins after he was acquired from Atlanta makes us wonder what the future would've been like if he stayed there long-term.
5. Patrick Kane
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With all due respect to Toews, the best player that Fleury played with in Chicago was Patrick Kane.
Kane's all-time greatness has him hot on the heels of Evgeni Malkin in points and while Kane is one of the best American players in history, he's 32nd all-time in league history scoring-wise. Even during Fleury's season in Chicago, Kane was the 'Hawks' best player by far, putting up 92 points with 26 goals.
Unfortunately for Kane and Fleury, Chicago didn't score enough and couldn't stop enough pucks to get into the playoff picture and Fleury was traded at the deadline. A year later, Kane would be gone, and the rebuild would begin in full.
It does make you wonder how fun it would've been to have Fleury and Kane be teammates for a lot longer than they were, but considering the guys that remain to be seen on this list, it's safe to say Fleury had it pretty good anyway.
4. Evgeni Malkin
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It's probably not controversial that we're ranking Evgeni Malkin third when considering Fleury's teammates, but when we've made it this far and the top two guys on this list are probably really obvious, then maybe there's a good debate to be had. Then again, we're talking about two guys that were teammates for over a decade and won championships together and it's logical, right? Right.
Malkin, in comparison to other greats we've listed here, such as Patrick Kane, is relatively close in the all-time scoring list (Malkin is three points ahead of Kane before the season began). Malkin has scored more goals, but they've both won the Hart Trophy and a Conn Smythe Trophy as well as multiple Stanley Cups.
You could call it a tie if you want to, but in this case, the tie goes to the guy who spent the most time as Fleury's teammate rather than trying to score goals against him. Malkin's brilliance often got overshadowed by Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, but that didn't detract from what a formidable player he was. He was the ideal center counterpart to Crosby in Pittsburgh and vital to their success over the years.
3. Mark Recchi
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Part of the fun of putting together a ranking like this isn't just about combing through the rosters and remembering some guys, but it's remembering some Hall of Famers that crossed paths with Fleury throughout his career. Case in point: Mark Recchi.
Recchi was one of the top point producers throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s. His multiple stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins allowed him to cross paths with Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Recchi's return to Pittsburgh in 2005-2006 allowed him to team up with Fleury, which earned him a spot on our rankings.
In 2017, Recchi was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after a career in which he scored 1,533 points, including 577 goals. He's 15th all-time in scoring and he's a three-time Stanley Cup winner (1991 with Pittsburgh, 2006 with Carolina, and 2011 with Boston). It's incredible that he was able to be a teammate with so many different Penguins greats and that a character like him was teammates with a character like Fleury had to have been fun.
2. Sidney Crosby
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Fleury's career, essentially intertwined with Sidney Crosby for both of their most formative years, was really something special to watch. Crosby's brilliance, coupled with Fleury's emergence as a top-tier goaltender, helped the Penguins go from a team on the come-up to Stanley Cup champions multiple times.
Crosby was and continues to be one of the best players in the league. He's ninth all-time in points and while he's not at the level he was 10 or 15 years ago (who is?!) he's still producing at a point per-game level as he creeps up on 40 years old. He's always been incredible and that he was teammates with Fleury for 12 seasons is amazing.
Crosby's brilliance could only be outdone on our rankings by one specific player, and it took a lot to make that happen just the same. However, when it comes to longevity and success, as Fleury's teammate, there was none better.
1. Mario Lemieux
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It's incredible to think about how long Fleury's career was and how long ago it was he started with the Pittsburgh Penguins. At 18 years old in October 2003, Fleury made his NHL debut, two years before Sidney Crosby's arrival and in the second-to-last season for Le Magnifique, Mario Lemieux.
Lemieux wasn't the dominant force in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 for Fleury's first two seasons, but he was still Mario Lemieux just the same. Fleury not only got to be Lemieux's teammate, but Lemieux was also his boss, considering he was part-owner of the team.
Lemieux earns the top spot on our list because even Sidney Crosby would likely insist that 66 takes top billing, regardless. Super Mario is eighth all-time in scoring with 1,723 points and even though Crosby is still playing and right on his heels in ninth with 1,687, what Lemieux did for the Penguins was other-worldly, and if not for battles with cancer and injury, the debate over whether he or Wayne Gretzky was the greatest of all time would burn even hotter still.
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