Dec 9, 2003 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Penguins rookie goalie Marc-Andre Fleury will keep earning his $1.24 million salary during the nearly one month he spends with Canada’s junior national team. The Penguins aren’t obligated to pay Fleury while he plays in the world junior championships, but general manager Craig Patrick said the team is aware he has NHL-related expenses, including his Pittsburgh apartment.

“We’ll be paying him as if he were with our club,” Patrick said.

Patrick said the issue of the $3 million the Penguins will owe Fleury in contract incentives if he plays more than one period in 25 NHL games did not enter into the decision.

Previously, Patrick and team president Ken Sawyer said Fleury’s contract and the team’s revenue situation would greatly determine whether he stayed in Pittsburgh. The last-place Penguins expect to lose $5 million this season even if they don’t pay Fleury the contract incentives.

By allowing Fleury to play in the junior world championships, the Penguins will delay by about a month their decision on whether to return Fleury to his junior team in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For now, the plan is for Fleury to rejoin the Penguins once the Dec. 26-Jan. 5 tournament in Finland ends.

If Fleury is sent back to juniors before he plays 25 games with Pittsburgh, he will not earn his incentives but would use up one season of his entry-level three-year contract. He also can’t return to the Penguins once he goes back to juniors, except during an emergency involving injuries to multiple goalies.

“He’s eligible to be in the world junior championships, he happens to be very desired and we just think it’s going to be very key to his development,” Patrick said.

The 19-year-old Fleury may play for Pittsburgh in Vancouver on Tuesday night before joining the Canadian under-20 team training camp Thursday in Kitchener, Ontario.

If Fleury plays Tuesday, it would be his 16th start. But he was pulled from one before playing the required 20 minutes needed for it to count as a game played under his contract.

Patrick hopes Fleury (4-9-2, 3.15 goals-against average and .911 save percentage) will regain the confidence he displayed during October, when he was the NHL rookie of the month.

Fleury recently went through a six-game losing streak.

“I think he’ll look back on this three months from now, six months from now, two years from now and say, “That was the right thing for me to do,”‘ Patrick said.

Fleury was the surprise star of the silver medalist Canadian junior team during last year’s world championships, with a 4-1 record, a 1.28 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage.

Second-year goalie Sebastien Caron is to replace Fleury in Pittsburgh’s lineup. He is 2-7-2 in 12 appearances this season with a 3.93 goals-against average and a .883 save percentage.