He’s slated for the Kraken’s 3rd pair.
Cale Fleury has an opportunity this season, barring Seattle acquiring another defenseman, to see a regular shift at the NHL level. Being right-handed, he has that natural advantage over lefty Josh Mahura, the other Kraken blueliner who’s working under contract for a little more than the NHL minimum salary.
Both players skated in the same number of games last season, 23.
With Fleury in the line-up, the club has the ideal balance of three lefties and three righties.
While Mahura seemed to show more aggressive physical behavior last training camp, it didn’t really carry over into the regular season. Fleury, just an inch taller and ten pounds heavier than his left-handed counterpart, totalled almost twice as many hits on the season and blocked 34 shots to Mahura’s 24.
Fleury also dropped the mitts for the first time in his NHL career in the second game of the season against forward Nikita Grebenkin of the Flyers in Philadelphia. Grenbenkin picked up the instigator penalty.
Fleury also recorded just his second ever NHL goal and the only one in his 59 career games with the Kraken.
He tallied on January 2nd against the floundering Vancouver Canucks and goaltender Thatcher Demko in what eventually turned into a 4-3 shoot-out victory for the visiting Kraken.
His only other NHL goal came his rookie season with the Montreal Canadiens back in 2019-’20. It came at home on November 16th, 2019 against the New Jersey Devils and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood in a 4-3 overtime loss.
Fleury was originally a 3rd-round NHL draft pick of the Habs in 2017 out of the Western Hockey League. Oddly enough, he played 51 games with Mahura and the Regina Pats after being acquired in a trade with the Kootenay Ice in 2017-’18.
He’s played exactly 100 NHL games at this point, with those two goals and a grand total of four assists. It’s an important season for him to make a lasting impression at age 27. That makes him somewhat of a spring chicken in an aging D-corps that needs to see some wins while late in its prime.
Top guy Vince Dunn turns 30 and will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at season’s end.
32-year old Brandon Montour has five years left on his Seattle contract; 33-year-old Adam Larsson has three remaining. Jamie Oleksiak, the “big rig”, who turns 34 in December, has already departed, signing as a free agent this summer with the Canucks.
Fleury has a chance to stake out a spot in a contract year. He enters the second season of a two-year deal with UFA status looming. Opportunity knocks.
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