Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-André Fleury was only 19 when he started his NHL career with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being selected with the No. 1 overall pick at the 2003 NHL Draft.
His first roommate was 38-year-old Marc Bergevin, who was in his 20th and final season as an NHL defenceman.
“My first time with the team, him and Mario (Lemieux) took me for lunch in Pittsburgh,” Fleury recalled after the Golden Knights practised at the Bell Centre Friday afternoon in preparation for Saturday’s game against the Canadiens (7 p.m., SNE, Citytv, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) .
“He was a fun roommate,” Fleury added about Bergevin, who is now general manager of the Canadiens. “He made me laugh a lot. He liked to play jokes on me … I can’t really say what they were. He was awesome and a good model for me.
“He always had little jokes and pranks he would play,” Fleury added with a huge smile. “I bought him a book once and I left it on the nightstand … something about sex. And then when you open it it gives you a shock. So I got him, right?”
Bergevin had a reputation as one of the best pranksters and jokers in the NHL long before he became GM of the Canadiens in 2012. He was a great teammate, and that’s part of what kept him in the league so long after being selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the third round (59th overall) of the 1983 NHL Draft. Bergevin played for eight teams — Chicago, the New York Islanders, Hartford Whalers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh and the Vancouver Canucks — and finished his career with 36 goals and 145 assists for 181 points in 1,191 career games, along with 1,090 penalty minutes.
The Penguins weren’t a good team during Fleury’s rookie season, finishing with a 23-47-12 record. Fleury played 22 games and had a 4-14-2 record with a 3.64 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage. Bergevin had 1-8-9 totals in 52 games before getting traded to the Canucks for a seventh-round draft pick.
“We had a tough year,” recalled Fleury, who would go on to win three Stanley Cups with the Penguins. “We were losing a lot and he was trying to keep my spirits up through it all. You don’t know what the NHL is going to be when you first come in the league. You take it so seriously, but it’s a long season. He was good at doing little daily things to keep you smiling and keep you happy. Sometimes you’d get back to the hotel and you’re just mad. But he’d have a little talk with me to reassure me and calm me, help me try to forget about the loss quickly and move on. It’s a long season, so you need to just get ready for the next game.
“He was a good role model for taking care of his body with the gym and vitamins,” Fleury added. “He was always proactive with that and it was a good lesson.”
Fleury said he was “definitely happy” when Bergevin became GM of the Canadiens.
“It doesn’t feel that long ago,” Fleury, now 35, said about his rookie season. “It’s been 16 years, but time flies. It’s crazy. I can still remember those days.”
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