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G Zach Fucale (2013, 36th, MTL)

supahdupah said:
So he gets all the credit team wins, but none for his pedestrian save percentage? Not really that hard to predict if he makes the NHL. Looks at his SV% adjusted for league and see how many goalies ever make it to the NHL. I bet it's much closer to 0 then 100 percent.
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Fucale's best SV% is .909 in a season, here are some others who matched that, or worse who went on to have decent or good NHL careers

Mathieu Garon 97-98
Ondrej Pavelec 06-07
Felix Potvin 90-91
Marc Denis 96-97
Fernandez 93-94
Jonathan Bernier 05-06 / 06-07 / 07-08

I think simply stating that because his SV% is not as high as some of the best recorded SV% therefore he's this, or that is an over simplistic understanding of this player. I will also include, that simply taking my analysis alone is also an over simplification if it is used to suggest he's going to be a certain level of goaltender.

Moreover, I do believe that goaltenders deserve credit, or at least partial credit for the team's success. I don't think it is fair to say that a Team's success had very little, or nothing to do with a Goaltender's play or ability.

I will make this argument: a high scoring center playing in the CHL wins a memorial cup, a WJHC gold, and scores over 100 points in 1 or 2 seasons. He has a number of defensive holes in his game, but is widely considered a leader, a winner, and a clutch player because of his achievements despite his faults at this age, and is seen as a great prospect for the future.

Fucale is like 19, he's had one of the best CHL careers (at least in the Q) that a goalie could have. He has a number of areas that he needs to improve on, both positionally, and mentally. But from what we've seen, he has a great chance at developing into a goalie that will have a good NHL career.
 
Those stats are adorably cherry picked.

The only 2 from the 2000s are Pavelec & Bernier. Pavelec had a .929Save% in one of his 2 QMJHL seasons and Berniers numbers were extremely consistent throughout his Q career.

They both had GAA's up near 2.50-2.70 because the "high scoring Q" actually factored in for them. They were the best players on their teams and actually faced huge work loads. Fucale was getting 2.20-2.30GAA's behind NHL lottery picks.

I kind of feel bad for the kid because he's way overhyped by a portion of the hockey world just because he was on the right team at the right time.
 
Keep in mind Pavelec has been a pretty lackluster goalie, anyhow.

If you're trying to make Fucale look good, that's not a promising comparison.
 
Uh, yeah those stats are cherry picked because it was used to illustrate a rebuttle to an unsubstantiated claim, which is just wrong. The claim was that because Fucale has a pedestrian SV% and the probably of goalies who have that SV% in that league is close to 0.

I was pointing out goalies who had mediocre SV%, similar to Fucale who did make the NHL to show that in fact goalies who have mediocre SV% do make the NHL.

I like Fucale as a goalie, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I would like to try and look at him as a player from a more objective angle, for instance

Pavelec in 05-06 played 47 games, .929 SV%, 2.51 GAA and 2.578min
in 06-07 played 43 games, .908, 2.52 and 2.335

Bernier over 4 seasons (seemingly 3 as starter)
23GP, .908, 2.97 1,353
54GP, .908, 2.70 3,241
37GP, .905, 2.58, 2,186
34GP, .908, 2.73, 2,024

Looking at Fucale's numbers in comparison during his three complete years (not counting this year because it isn't done)
58GP, .892, 3.16 3,249
55GP, .909, 2.35, 3,161
50GP, .907, 2.26, 2,916

Pavelec never played more than 47 games, Bernier topped 50GP once, but Fucale never had less during his first three seasons. Fucale played more minutes, and had better GAA, and aside from his first year had roughly the same SV% aside from Pavelec's first year.

If Pavelec and Bernier were MVPs of their team, then Fucale who played more, won more, and performed at least on the same level is not considered the same? Even looking at Bernier's and Fucale's Memorical Cup run, both are really similar:
Bernier in 2007: 17GP 16w 1L 1shutout, .919, 2.34
Fucale in 2013: 17GP 16w 1L 3shutouts, .918, 2.02

I'm not claiming that Fucale is going to be the next best NHL goalie. I repeated claim that we don't know how he'll turn out, but I think based on what he has done, he has a good chance at having a solid NHL career, and I think he has proven that himself, which is reflected in his proximity to becoming the winningest goalie in QMJHL history.
 
zeropotentate said:
Uh, yeah those stats are cherry picked because it was used to illustrate a rebuttle to an unsubstantiated claim, which is just wrong. The claim was that because Fucale has a pedestrian SV% and the probably of goalies who have that SV% in that league is close to 0.

I was pointing out goalies who had mediocre SV%, similar to Fucale who did make the NHL to show that in fact goalies who have mediocre SV% do make the NHL.

I like Fucale as a goalie, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I would like to try and look at him as a player from a more objective angle, for instance

Pavelec in 05-06 played 47 games, .929 SV%, 2.51 GAA and 2.578min
in 06-07 played 43 games, .908, 2.52 and 2.335

Bernier over 4 seasons (seemingly 3 as starter)
23GP, .908, 2.97 1,353
54GP, .908, 2.70 3,241
37GP, .905, 2.58, 2,186
34GP, .908, 2.73, 2,024

Looking at Fucale's numbers in comparison during his three complete years (not counting this year because it isn't done)
58GP, .892, 3.16 3,249
55GP, .909, 2.35, 3,161
50GP, .907, 2.26, 2,916

Pavelec never played more than 47 games, Bernier topped 50GP once, but Fucale never had less during his first three seasons. Fucale played more minutes, and had better GAA, and aside from his first year had roughly the same SV% aside from Pavelec's first year.

If Pavelec and Bernier were MVPs of their team, then Fucale who played more, won more, and performed at least on the same level is not considered the same? Even looking at Bernier's and Fucale's Memorical Cup run, both are really similar:
Bernier in 2007: 17GP 16w 1L 1shutout, .919, 2.34
Fucale in 2013: 17GP 16w 1L 3shutouts, .918, 2.02

I'm not claiming that Fucale is going to be the next best NHL goalie. I repeated claim that we don't know how he'll turn out, but I think based on what he has done, he has a good chance at having a solid NHL career, and I think he has proven that himself, which is reflected in his proximity to becoming the winningest goalie in QMJHL history.
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Lots of words with no substance.

By the end you repeat that you're basing your opinion on his win total which is a team stat.
 
IHaveNoCreativity said:
The guy wins. He has that pedigree. I don't care how good or bad his stats are.
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Can't win in the NHL without stats... no team is going to be built as dominant as MacKinnon/Drouin's Halifax where you can be a "winner" despite playing average at best.

Halifax has been better off without him so far this season lol
 
IHaveNoCreativity said:
The guy wins. He has that pedigree. I don't care how good or bad his stats are.
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Fucale doesn't win. His teams win. His save percentage and GAA are his contributions to his teams winning. An argument can be made that he hasn't been contributing enough to that.

Unless the mere presence of a goalie with so many #winz makes his forwards consistently score the almost always required 3+ goals.
 
Tripod said:
I could swear a goalie is part of the team. Guess not.
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That's not even remotely close to what I said.

When talking about Fucale's play and whatever "potential " it merits, falling back to the wins is a straight up irrelavent argument because hockey is a team sport and if you place Fucale on other teams his skill doesn't change, but his precious #winz will. And that's true for every other player since #winz are a useless way to evaluate a player in hockey.
 
Good thing Price is 27 years old and might have a couple more years left in him. ;)

Habs are the perfect team for Fucale to be drafted. He's got little pressure to develop any time soon, he's got a couple young goalies in Tokarski/Condon who're further going lower expectations off him once he goes pro. The question marks surrounding his ability will always be there in junior and his future will be much more clear once he hits pro.
 
I'm not sure how to say this without sounding like an idiot.

Fucale has a very, very strong mental game, that allows him to play well in tough situations. Only a select few goaltenders his age get to demonstrate this in a high profile way, either by going into the late rounds of their leagues respective playoffs, or by being selected to a national team.

He rebounds well from being scored on, and examples of him being chased from the net are few and far between (also, **** you Mantha). His focus on the ice is unreal for a kid his age, and watching him play live makes this clear. It doesn't come up on the stat sheet, and it doesn't really come up when you're watching him play no TV.
 
P0LiUM said:
I'm not sure how to say this without sounding like an idiot.

Fucale has a very, very strong mental game, that allows him to play well in tough situations. Only a select few goaltenders his age get to demonstrate this in a high profile way, either by going into the late rounds of their leagues respective playoffs, or by being selected to a national team.

He rebounds well from being scored on, and examples of him being chased from the net are few and far between (also, **** you Mantha). His focus on the ice is unreal for a kid his age, and watching him play live makes this clear. It doesn't come up on the stat sheet, and it doesn't really come up when you're watching him play no TV.
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I know. I don't understand how people say he has a weak mental game. To me the perfect example is Canada vs Russia. He gives up 3 goals in 3 and a half minutes and Canada is only up by 1 going into the 3'rd period. However he calms himself down and doesn't give up another goal.
 
Mark Kandy said:
Fucale just registered a shutout at his first start with the Quebec Rempart... looks like he's good with good teams!
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So he needs 16 wins to set the record and the Remparts have 24 games left? Sounds like it might still be doable, despite the games missed to WJCs and the rough start this year!

He's also had 4 pretty long playoff years, and those international games too... I wonder if you added up some of those wins how he'd rate in terms of junior career all-inclusive grand totals?

Regardless of how he's viewed as an NHL prospect/project, it's still an interesting story.
 
Mark Kandy said:
Fucale just registered a shutout at his first start with the Quebec Rempart... looks like he's good with good teams!
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And then lets in 3 in 18 shots the next game to lose when his team dominated...looks like we should use a player's overall body of work to gauge his value rather than a single game!
 
Maybe its just me but fucale seems like the type of goalie that needs to be pelted with shots sorta like how Miller was better with the Sabers last year as opposed to the Blues.
 
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