Marc-Andre Fleury's agent jabs Golden Knights on Twitter, and NHL pundits have jokes

Tom Gatto

Marc-Andre Fleury's agent jabs Golden Knights on Twitter, and NHL pundits have jokes image

The Golden Knights' goalie situation got stickier Saturday when the agent for Marc-Andre Fleury tweeted artwork depicting his client being stabbed in the back with a sword.

The agent, Allan Walsh, did not add commentary to the detailed illustration, but then he didn't need to: He believes the team has betrayed a three-time Stanley Cup champion in favor of deadline acquisition Robin Lehner, who has become the Knights' No. 1 goalie in the postseason.

Sources told Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman that the Knights spoke with Fleury on Saturday and that they're "satisfied this will not be an issue as they pursue the Stanley Cup."  Vegas will begin its second-round series vs. Vancouver on Sunday in the Edmonton bubble.

MORE: Second-round playoff bracket, TV schedules

Fleury, 35, has played just twice in the 2020 postseason: a round-robin game vs. the Blues and Game 3 of Vegas' first-round series vs. the Blackhawks. Lehner has posted a 2.44 goals-against average and .904 save percentage in six games, winning five.

Vegas has been to the Stanley Cup playoffs in all three of its seasons, and Fleury was in net when the expansion club advanced to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final vs. the Capitals. He won three Cups with the Penguins.

Fleury is signed through the 2021-22 season with a $7 million average cap hit.

Hockey media, seeing an opportunity to make jokes about Fleury, league discipline, officiating and even Vegas' game ops, were razor-sharp on Twitter:

There was also one serious comment from a former teammate of Fleury's:

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.