Trevor Timmins and Marc Bergevin elected to draft for an imaginary need by taking goaltender Zachary Fucale, who played on an elite, stacked team in the Halifax Mooseheads.
When McKenzie was asked for his thoughts on Fucale, he said “Forget about numbers, if the game is on the line, Fucale wins. He’s clutch” which sounds like the kind of horrible analysis a goalie on a stacked team always gets. It reminds me of what people in the media say about Marc-Andre Fleury, so with a 40 goal scorer in Zykov still on the board, I think this was an atrocious pick.
Here’s what Pronman had to say about Fucale, whom he ranked 93rd:
Fucale burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old for Halifax, taking on an unusual amount of CHL responsibility for such a young goaltender. This year, he was one of the top goalies in the QMJHL, and he certainly has several interesting qualities, such as his hockey sense and panic threshold. For a U-18 goaltender, he looks very advanced and collected in net. His movements are very subtle, and he squares up pucks well. He has quick, powerful feet that allow him to move across the crease and position himself efficiently. Fucale’s game, however, is called into question by some scouts who do not believe he has a game-breaking ability to make a high-athleticism second or third save. Some believe he has that ability, and others agree, with the caveat that it is not top end. I am somewhere in between, as I see reasonable arguments for both sides.
Ranking explanation: For further information on how I rank goaltenders, see the ranking explanation for Tristan Jarry, number 89 on this list.
Here are his career stats:
