Fleury trails only Martin Brodeur (691) and Patrick Roy (551) in that category. Minnesota’s home victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 28 marked the 536th victory of Fleury’s career, inching him one step closer to catching Roy.

That said, it’s quite unlikely that Fleury will surpass Roy this year. There are only two months remaining in the regular season, and backup goalie Filip Gustavsson — who has actually outplayed Fleury for long stretches of the season — has been getting his fair share of starts as well.

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One thing that’s impressive about Fleury catching up to Roy? The latter won 551 games in 1,029 regular season games played with the powerhouse Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche. Fleury entered Monday with 536 career wins in 972 games played — and he’s on his fourth franchise.

So Fleury will most certainly surpass Roy’s career win total in less games played, in an era where racking up wins as a goaltender is harder than ever before.

Fleury won 375 games over his 13 seasons with the Penguins, 191 with the Vegas Golden Knights — helping them to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season — and 45 with the Chicago Blackhawks before joining Minnesota last year.

Having turned 38 in November, it’s highly unlikely that Fleury will get anywhere close to matching Brodeur’s career wins record. But the fact he’ll eventually surpass Roy — whom many argue is the NHL’s all-time greatest goaltender — will just add another cherry on top of his Hall of Fame career.

Wild Need Vintage Fleury For Final Stretch

Statistically speaking, Fleury isn’t playing up to his usual standards. The Wild as a team have regressed considerably here in 2022-23, one year after posting a franchise record 113 points.

The Wild are in a tight race with the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche for the third seed in the Central Division. The Wild, Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators are all vying for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference in a race that could very well go down to the wire.

Since Dean Evason replaced Bruce Boudreau as head coach in the 2019-20 campaign, the Wild have been a regular season juggernaut. They reached the qualifying round of the 2020 postseason but were ousted by the Vancouver Canucks in four games.

The Wild have been a consistent playoff contender over the past decade, but they haven’t advanced past the second round since the improbable 2003 run to the Western Conference Final.

Minnesota scored 310 goals in the regular season a year ago, good for fifth-most in the league. Entering this week, however, their 158 goals per game placed the Wild 22nd. That’s alarming regression for a team that relies on its speed, skill and scoring depth up front to win.

The Minnesota offense is once again being driven by Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello. Joel Eriksson Ek is having a career year, and sophomore Matt Boldy has improved considerably following a stellar rookie campaign.

At times like these, teams need their best players to be their best players. The forwards are holding up their end of the bargain, and now it’s time for Flower to do the same. Fleury’s track record and success in the postseason alone should give Minnesota strong belief that they can beat anybody come playoff time.

But Fleury has got to find a way to regain his star-like form. If he doesn’t, Evason may have no choice but to turn the starting duties over to Gustavsson. Missing the playoffs with a roster this talented would be a colossal disaster in The State of Hockey, pure and simple.

Every win inches Fleury one step closer to surpassing Roy. More importantly, each victory draws Minnesota that much closer to a playoff spot.