Welcome to the end of the 2023-24 NHL season! Well, not officially since Edmonton has decided to make a series out of it after losing the first three games in the Stanley Cup Final. Still, we’re close enough to the end that it’s time to start rolling out the player reviews for the Tampa Bay Lightning. With free agency less than 10 days away, we figured it would be best to start with the pending unrestricted free agents, lest we review them when they are some other fanbase’s concern.
First up in our series: Haydn Fleury
The Basics
Name: Hadyn Fleury
Position: Defenseman
Counting Stats: 24 Games, 1 Goal, 4 Assists, 16:07 TOI
Extra Stats (5v5): 45.35% CF, 43.57% SF, 60.71 GF%, 44.08% xGF, 47.83% HDCF%, 93.89% On-ice Save Percentage, 1.15 iXG
2023-24 Contract: Second year of a two-year deal that had a $762,500 cap hit
Contract Status: Pending unrestricted free agent
The Charts
The Review
So, did Haydn Fleury have a good season with the Tampa Bay Lightning? Honestly, with just 24 games played, it’s really hard to say. Fleury definitely had a chance to have a good season, but unfortunately injuries derailed him in at the most inopportune time.
The 27-year-old started the season with the Bolts, but played sparingly over the first month, so much so that he was assigned to Syracuse for a conditioning stint in November. Once he returned late in the month, he started working his way into the line-up as a third-pairing defenseman and slowly built up his ice time as other members of the defense started to pick up injuries.
His season peaked in mid-December in St. Louis where he played 22:32 and picked up a goal (his only of the season) and an assist in the Lightning’s 6-1 win over the Blues.
That was also the game in which Mikhail Sergachev suffered his first injury of the season, which opened up some ice time on the left side of the defense. Fleury filled that role over the next few games, averaging 19:46 of ice time. Unfortunately, on New Year’s Eve, he knocked down a shot with his hand and missed the next month-and-a-half of the season.
When he returned in mid-February, he played regularly until he collided with official Steve Kozari in a game in early April. While the coaching staff said he was healthy for the playoffs, he did not make it into the line-up and finished the season with just the 24 games played.
It was a bit of a roller-coaster season for Fleury as he went from frequent healthy scratch to the de facto second-pair defenseman. Such is life for the 7th-defenseman on a roster, but unfortunately for Fleury he never really got a chance to grab a hold of the role due to his hand injury in December.
He was paired up with Erik Cernak for much of his time on the ice and the duo was underwater in all of their possession stats during their 190 minutes of 5v5 ice time together except for goals scored. The role of second-pair defenseman just wasn’t what he was suited for and he played better in limited minutes, especially when paired with Nick Perbix:
| 5v5 stats | with Cernak | with Perbix |
| Minutes | 190:04 | 65:27 |
| Corsi For | 45.53% | 54.40% |
| Scoring Chances For | 48.09% | 49.02% |
| Goals For | 60% | 50% |
| Expected Goals For | 40.76% | 61.48% |
If injuries hadn’t upended the Lightning’s defense for the better part of the season, it would have been interesting to see if Coach Cooper would have let the Fleury/Perbix combination stick together a little more as a third pair. Sure, it would have been a black hole of offense on both sides of the ice, but for 9-12 minutes a night, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
There isn’t anything that really stands out about Fleury’s game, which, to damn him with faint praise, is kind of what coaches can hope for from a third pairing defender. If you don’t notice him doing anything really well, or really poorly, it’s been a good game for him. Fleury did use his size to block shots, his 4.55/60 was fifth on the team and as the first chart above, shows he kept the area in front of the crease fairly clean.
What does the future hold?
Will he be back? Probably not. With the addition of Ryan McDonagh and the healthy return of Sergachev, the left side of the Lightning’s defense is set. While Fleury does offer the ability to play either side, thus making an ideal seventh defenseman on the roster, Tampa Bay may choose to solve that issue internally at a cheaper price. If Fleury was willing to sign for the league-minimum, perhaps he comes back, but chances are he explores the free agent market.
It will be interesting to see how the increased cap affects players like Fleury. He can offer teams veteran experience and defensive depth and that might create a little market for him on the lower-end of the pay scale. Instead of settling for $800,000 a season, maybe, with the extra cap room, some teams can afford to offer him, or players like him a million a season. It might not sound like a huge difference in a league where players are making $10 million a season, but for someone at the bottom of the roster, an extra $200,00 could be a huge difference.
