Dunlap: What's The Rush With A Fleury Decision?
There's a big, vast gray area between Jim Rutherford and Mike Milbury when it comes to their opinions of Marc-Andre Fleury.
And that's where I reside, in that gray. … a gray I'll get to in a minute.
To me, that's also the space the Pittsburgh Penguins should occupy, as there's really no hurry to indelibly stamp his future here (as Rutherford did) or pretty much call him a bum (as Milbury did).
We will get to those divergent opinions in a moment, but first the nuts and bolts …
There might be no bigger lightning rod in this town --- a person with whom opinions ebb and flow with his performance --- than Fleury. The Penguins goaltender, who turns 30 next month, is on the final year of a seven-year, $35 million contract. He is eligible for unrestricted free agency after the season if not re-signed.
Rutherford, still in his infancy as Penguins general manager, made a bold proclamation earlier this week, definitively pronouncing that Fleury will be the Penguins' netminder as long as he's the general manager.
That's one hell of a leap of faith, quite a bit of neck-sticking-out for a guy who has a well-documented stretch of struggling in the playoffs.
Albeit he did win that Stanley Cup at the end of the 2008-09 season, he has a 21-22 record in postseason games since, and has toppled the .900 save percentage benchmark in just one postseason since lifting the Cup.
That's not exactly the kind of stuff that should make a general manager declare that the guy is the long-term --- or even for his full-term --- solution.
How about the gray area? The gray I will get to in a minute …
First though, there's the other end of the spectrum, the one in which Milbury resides. The ex-player with the Bruins and coach in Boston along with the New York Islanders seems to make it personal when he shifts into disapproval of Fleury.
When Milbury speaks about the goaltender, it takes an almost "why would the Penguins ever think about re-signing this guy" tone.
Again, that gray area between Rutherford and Milbury is probably best. … and I'll get to it. Bear with me.
During the first intermission of Wednesday night's Penguins game against Philadelphia at CONSOL Energy Center, the NBC Sports Network went to their customary intermezzo programming.
And, Milbury had his customary kinda, somewhat controversial statement.
"Why?" Milbury said flatly when the prospects of a long-term commitment to Fleury were brought up. "This is a guy who has been disappointing in the last three seasons. His postseason save percentage is about 89 percent, which is not very good. I don't know why there's a hurry to sign him.
"And last I knew Jim Rutherford was only going to be around a couple of years so maybe it isn't as big of an endorsement as we thought it was."
Milbury continued when asked about how Fleury seems to produce better when pushed by a veteran backup.
"It's not like he's a rookie though," Milbury said. "At this point he should have grown up. The fact that he's that thin-skinned …"
Milbury then encouraged the panel to move on from the Fleury conversation.
So Rutherford and Milbury have both stated --- in fairly obvious tones --- their opinion of Fleury.
To them, it is clearly black and white.
How about this?
How about that gray area?
Simply make Marc-Andre Fleury produce this season in the final year of that contract and then make a decision.
The gray area appears to be the clearest solution to me.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weeknights from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.
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