Zachary Fucale Autographed Card

Who knows best how to build a team, a GM who takes over a team two years removed from a Conference Final and manages to miss the playoffs three times in five years and mortgages 15% of his salary cap on a goalie three years removed from his lone good season, or a GM who builds a Stanley Cup Finalist out of rejects from the other 30 teams in his first year on the job?

GM #2 in this story, the Vegas Golden Knights' George McPhee, just signed former second-round pick, 23-year-old Zachary Fucale, to a one-year, two-way deal, banking on his youth, his pedigree as a three-time Team Canada gold medalist and the fact that despite posting a career-low in save percentage with the AHL's Laval Rocket last year, was the team's best goalie - both from an eye test and statistically. It was just an awful, awful team that was terribly outcoached every single game.

GM #1 truly believes Carey Price is the only player he needs to have that is an NHL-level talent (although, considering last season, even that last bit of sentence is up for debate).

We'll see who's right in due time, but I'd like to say to those who think Fucale is overrated that at the same stage of his career, Price had been supplanted at the Montréal Canadiens' #1 goalie by Jaroslav Halak for three years straight despite the job being Price's every training camp, and Price finished with pedestrian numbers every year:

From HockeyReference

And, of course, it was much worse come playoff time:

ditto

Fucale, despite playing on the worst AHL team of the past decade, displayed some fine control when facing NHL-level talent:

Zach Fucale makes an incredible pad save on Anthony DeAngelo. pic.twitter.com/PUR3N9KfWp

— Scott Matla (@scottmatla) January 13, 2018

So, yeah, I still believe Fucale can develop into a fine NHL backup before the age of 25 and a starter before he reaches 28, following the career trajectories of Carter Hutton, Cam Talbot, Antti Raanta, Scott Darling (well, he might not be the best example) and Craig Anderson.

Here he is sporting the Halifax Mooseheads' beautiful white uniform, on card #244 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it for me in blue sharpie last season, when the Habs called him up without playing him a single second.

Martin Frk Autographed Card

Nothing has come easy nor normally for Martin Frk.

A European playing in the LHJMQ, he ranked second in scoring on the Halifax Mooseheads in his rookie season in Canadian Juniors, playing his way to being drafted 49th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2012. The following season, he helped the Mooseheads to the Memorial Cup, finishing tied for second in team playoff scoring with Nathan MacKinnon, behind Jonathan Drouin.

He seemed to have adapted greatly, but the Wings have a tendency to take their time developing their prospects, oftentimes using a hard-line approach that has led Frk to the ECHL in two consecutive seasons, finishing third in goals on the Toledo Walleye last season (with 23) despite only appearing in 29 games.

The way the CBA is written, however, Frk had to go through waivers when the Wings cut him from their roster this October, and he was claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes, who had him appear in a pair of games over a one-month trial during which they mostly kept him as a healthy scratch to not lose him in the same way.

When they concluded that he needed seasoning and assigned him to the AHL, he was re-claimed by Detroit, appeasing the team's fanbase, who had been vocal with their criticism of GM Ken Holland's handling of waiver wire losses in the past two years.

I've seen Frk play in summer camps and shinny games, and he does have talent, but he's shy - both on the ice and in person. I'm not surprised his first pro season in 2013-14 left some underwhelmed; he was basically still a teenager, in a new foreign land (for the second time in three years), surrounded by men who had been playing the game forever and weren't going to just give him their position. He was going to need some time to settle in.

In terms of Wings prospects, I believe Anthony Mantha has a higher ceiling and Tyler Bertuzzi can help out in more different ways, but Frk can play a middle-six, producing forward role, like Oleg Petrov in his day, or perhaps Martin Hanzal or Radim Vrbata nowadays; he's definitely not someone you can build around, but rather someone you hope will bring secondary scoring two out of every three years.

Here's a card he signed in blue sharpie (with his uniform number, 91, tagged at the end), showing him wearing the Mooseheads' red (away) uniform:

It's card #97 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set.

Zachary Fucale Signed 4x6 Picture

When looking purely at his statistics this season, one may be inclined to think Zachary Fucale is having a pretty bad year. Indeed, with the team standing at 9-7-0-3 near last place of its division, Fucale's 3.09 GAA and .887 save percentage don't necessarily scream out "Next Vezina Winner!", although his 6-3-0 record is pretty good.

As a matter of fact, he's the best on the Brampton Beast in every regard, as can be attested by this screen grab from HockeyDb:

Indeed, Andrew D'Agostini and Bryan Pitton seem to be what's bringing the Beast down this year.

It hasn't been easy for Fucale, once seen as Canadian Junior Hockey's best goalie, which forced the Montréal Canadiens to draft him 36th overall in 2013, though the team didn't want to repeat the growing pains of Carey Price, who took seven years to fulfill the promise that made him a top-5 pick in 2005.

Fucale was the youngest ever to reach 100 wins at the Junior level, a Team Canada gold medalist and holder of the country's record for most tournament wins (8) - tied with Stéphane Fiset and Marc-André Fleury - a Memorial Cup winner and tournament All-Star. In short, he's had one of the best Juniors career of all time.

So it was unexpected that he should fall to the ECHL after the Habs signed veteran Yann Danis as an insurance, but it's not like he is the first-ever to do so. Reigning Vezina winner Braden Holtby spent time there, as did Conn Smythe and two-time Stanley Cup winner Jonathan Quick. Oh, and one Jaroslav Halak.

He spent a lot of the past two summers in Montréal, training with goaltending coach Stéphane Waite. It was here that he signed this photo in thin black sharpie, showing him wearing the Halifax Mooseheads' white (home) uniform:

The kid's 21. I believe most goalies should reach the NHL around the age of 24 or 25. He's still on the right path, he just has Charlie Lindgren - a U.S. College signee from last season - ahead of him on the team's future depth chart to take over after Price's next contract prices him out of the Habs' lineup.