Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Zach Fucale's Path To The NHL

11/12/2021 at 10:30am EST

from Steven Ellis of The Hockey News,

At one point in his career, Zach Fucale was a top goaltending prospect with a bright future.

Nearly a decade later, those expectations never really took him that far. But on Thursday, Fucale became just the 10th goalie over the past 25 years to earn a shutout in their NHL debut with a 2-0 win over Detroit.

Any time a goalie wins their first game is special. But in Fucale's case, it almost looked destined to never happen for the 26-year-old.

At one point in time, the second-round pick by Montreal in 2013 was turning heads thanks to an impressive junior hockey career with Halifax and Quebec. Fucale did something that so few 16-year-old goaltenders have done in major junior: started over 55 games. He played 58 of the team's 68 outings in 2011-12 before putting up some incredible numbers in Halifax the following two years. Fucale won the Memorial Cup with Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin in 2012-13 and was the first goalie drafted in 2013, beating out Tristan Jarry, Eric Comrie and Juuse Saros, among others.

Fucale always seemed to be around quality teammates, leaving some to wonder if he was just getting carried by star talent. That didn't change when he helped backstop a dominant Canadian team to gold at the 2015 World Junior Championship. OK, so he can get the job done with a stacked group in front of him. What if you take that away? That's exactly what happened when Fucale got to the pro ranks. His vulnerabilities were exposed and his struggles were evident.

In Montreal, the odds were stacked against him.

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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