Marc-Andre Fleury, agent become distraction for Golden Knights

The flower emoji wilted over the past few days. Some of those pink petals now lie on ice.

Marc-Andre Fleury said he doesn’t want to be a distraction to the Golden Knights and their pursuit of a Stanley Cup championship. Funny. That’s exactly what he and his longtime agent became through a pointed (and now deleted) tweet.

You probably saw it. Allan Walsh went all Excalibur on Saturday in tweeting an image of Fleury as the Vegas goaltender with a sword through his back. Along the blade was the name DeBoer in reference to Knights coach Pete DeBoer. Real subtle.

On more than one occasion, Fleury has described his agent as family, someone he has known since age 15. So to believe Fleury didn’t know that Walsh would be aiming such an arrow at management is to believe the agent went totally rogue on the most important of clients. Nobody believes that. Or shouldn’t.

Fleury as much confirmed his knowledge of Walsh’s intentions Sunday, twice not directly answering questions in regards to the tweet just hours before the Knights opened a Western Conference semifinal series against the Vancouver Canucks.

“I think (Walsh) is a guy that always protects, or cares a lot about his players, and he does about me also,” Fleury said. “I think this was maybe a way to defend me in that situation where I’m not playing much.”

DeBoer’s one job

Um, protect Fleury from what or whom?

Has everyone lost all sense of what a coach’s sole job is when deciding on a lineup? It’s only to choose players he thinks affords the team its best chance to win. There is no loyalty clause involved here. DeBoer owes nothing to anyone except his best effort in preparing and coaching those he puts on the ice. Robin Lehner is the Vegas starter because he has been the better goaltender for some time. The end.

I suppose there is a (great) chance management hasn’t communicated well with Fleury, from why they really brought Lehner in at the trade deadline and then again about Fleury’s role leading up to the season’s restart. I suppose Fleury felt a sense of security when the Knights (foolishly) extended his contract by three years in 2018.

But this is a cutthroat business. You’re talking about a franchise that fired a coach (Gerard Gallant) at midseason who delivered a Stanley Cup Final appearance and playoff berth in the team’s first two years. One that said it reassigned its goalie coach (Dave Prior), only to have him later be quoted that he was actually fired and told he was no longer part of the organization.

Such dishonest nature by those at the top doesn’t make the Knights unique. It just makes them like every other major league sports franchise.

And yet none of it changes this: Fleury and his agent could have handled the player’s unhappiness far better. Like incredibly so. Like not in a public forum. At best, these are terrible optics at the worst time.

This isn’t a first for Walsh, who has used social media before to relay his frustrations or that of a client to a specific organization. Think what you want. Much like DeBoer choosing who to play, Walsh’s only concern is doing what he believes is best for Fleury. However bizarre his tactics.

How to respond

The level of fallout is anyone’s guess and makes what was thought to be an interesting offseason storyline — would the Knights try to keep Lehner and Fleury — all the more fascinating now.

In the moment, teams usually respond to such distraction one of two ways. They let it fester and affect their play and pay for it on the scoreboard. Or they use it as motivation to close ranks and play out of their minds. Vegas is talented enough to do the latter all the way to a Cup title.

There is no more respected or likable figure in the Vegas room than Fleury. He is as beloved there as he is with fans across the NHL. He also knows this world. He doesn’t have to like it. As a supreme competitor, he shouldn’t. But this was a bad, unnecessary look.

“I’ve known these guys for a little while now,” Fleury said of his teammates. “I don’t know, I just want to put this behind and move on, you know? I told them all I care about is winning and (what’s) best for the team.”

Oh, he cares about more than that.

It’s how he and his agent chose to reveal it that was the problem.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.