Goaltender Zachary Fucale is playing his second season in the KHL with the Chelyabinsk Traktor and he regularly faces star players, some of whom could make the jump to the NHL.
Although he only faced him once, on September 12, the Quebec goalkeeper is well aware of the spotlight that is focused on Ivan Demidov.
The Montreal Canadian prospect was also named among the stars of the last week in the KHL, with a harvest of three goals and two assists during the two victories of the Saint-Petersburg SKA.
“Every other day there’s something new about him; new ones highlightsa new point, another goal. He’s a very special player, there’s no doubt about that,” Fucale said in an interview with RDS. “You could ask his teammates (Tony) DeAngelo and (Evgeny) Kuznetsov what they think of him, they played a long time in the NHL, but from my perspective here, seeing the highlightshe is still there. He’s an excellent player. In a big league like the KHL, coming here at 19 and having success is not common.
“The league here doesn’t really have the focus on who’s next to go in the National League. Teams are thinking about their success now, it’s not a development league. It’s not like the AHL. The players who are on a team are the best players in the system. If Demidov is on this team, he can help them win. St. Petersburg isn’t putting him in the lineup just to help him go, they’re in it to win. »
Fucale’s last stay in North America dates back to the 2022-2023 championship season with the Hershey Bears in the American League. Drafted in the second round (36th overall) by the Montreal Canadiens in 2013, he played four games with the Washington Capitals in his career.
Rumors started swirling about him recently when it was learned that he had changed agents. Dan Milstein is known for representing KHL players who want to make the transition to the NHL. Fucale, however, tempers these rumors.
“There has been a change, but it’s nothing negative for me; It’s also representation I needed in the KHL. But it seems that people took it as if I was going to come back to Montreal tomorrow morning. We don’t know what will happen, we are far from that at the moment, there are still three months left in the season. I don’t think about that, I don’t think about next season. »
-Fucale, however, says a return to America is entirely possible, even at 29 years old. We can cite as an example Viktor Fasth who arrived in the NHL at the age of 30, just like Pavel Francouz, who also played in the KHL before crossing the Atlantic at the same age as the latter.
“Dan has the ability to represent me in both places. It’s interesting to me. A return to North America is possible, I won’t say no to anything at this stage in my career. I’ve had so many team changes, call-ups to the NHL, demotions to the East Coast… there’s nothing that’s going to surprise me anymore. It would be can givewe’ll see, but for me it’s just important to continue working on my things, have a good end to the season, and with good playoffs, everything is possible. We will keep the suspense. »
“It can change quickly. Alexandre Carrier certainly didn’t think he would end up in Montreal last year, and now he is happy to be home.
Fucale has worked with Carrier a lot in his career and he is happy to see what he brings to the Habs since his acquisition.
“Right-handed defensemen like him who skate like him, who have skill like that, you can’t find them of this caliber everywhere. Maybe I’m a little biased because I think of him as a boyfriend, but he’s not on every street corner. It’s an asset for a team. I’m not surprised, a guy like that helping the team, he’s a very, very good hockey player. I’m in his corner, I’m happy for him. We all had this dream when we were younger to play for the Canadian and he is living his dream.
Fucale and the Traktor are currently first in the Eastern Association with 22 games remaining in the regular schedule. The Quebecer is also happy with the way he and his family have managed to adapt to their new environment.
“The pieces fell into the right place. We are having another very good season. There have been a lot of changes within the team in the last few weeks, but we are on the way up and for me personally it is getting better and better. »
