Vegas sends Fleury to Chicago as goalie carousel spins

Marc-Andre Fleury was traded from Vegas to Chicago on Tuesday, a stunning turn of events that has the NHL’s reigning Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender contemplating his future.

The Golden Knights traded Fleury to the Blackhawks for minor league forward Mikael Hakkarainen in a salary dump. Fleury, 36, is set to count $7 million against the cap next season, the final year of his contract.

And that’s if he reports at all. Agent Allan Walsh tweeted, “Marc-Andre will be taking time to discuss his situation with his family and seriously evaluate his hockey future at this time.”

Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon knew Fleury “wanted to play in Vegas.”

“With respect to what decisions he might make moving forward, this is a player who is at the very top of his game,” McCrimmon said during a video call with reporters . “I sure think he’ll play this year. But those are thing that I would leave he or others to speak about.”

Fleury went 26-10-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average and .928 save percentage last season and was voted the Vezina winner by GMs.

The Fleury trade was one of several moves around the league, including the Blues agreeing to terms with winger Pavel Buchnevich and three players going on buyout waivers. It’s a $23.4 million, four-year deal that carries an annual cap hit of $5.8 million.

Vancouver put Braden Holtby and San Jose put Martin Jones on unconditional waivers for the purposes of buying out the remainder of the goalies’ contracts. Edmonton also began the buyout process with winger James Neal.