Red Wings prospect Kaden Fulcher is a “forgotten man” in the Red Wings’ goaltending pipeline. Fulcher remains a solid goaltending prospect for the Wings, but Filip Larsson, Keith Petruzzelli, Victor Brattstrom and Jesper Eliasson are the most-recognized goaltending prospects at present.
Fulcher’s descent down the list of Wings prospects has had to do in part with an injury-plagued 2019-2020 season with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.
Today, DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji reports that Fulcher eventually had surgery for a “lower-body injury” that he couldn’t shake this past season, and Wakiji spoke with Red Wings goaltending coach Phil Osaer regarding Fulcher’s trajectory as a prospect trying to hone his craft during a pandemic:
“Kaden, it was a tough year because it was plagued by injury. He ended up having season-ending surgery to repair a lower-body injury. It was a tough year for him. I’ve been very impressed with his mentality and his dedication and approach throughout the stay-at-home orders. He’s been working really, really hard. He’s gotten creative with utilizing a puck machine that he bought to work on his puck tracking. He had sent myself and (goaltending development coach) Brian Mahoney-Wilson video of him in full gear outside of his barn watching pucks come flying at him and he was catching them. One of the things that he identified that he really wanted to improve on is tracking with his high shots and he found a way to do it, which I admire that. He’s been very good about listening to all the rules and regulations so he hasn’t been able to get out very much at all so he found a way, which is something that I admire, that he took those steps. He’s eager, he’s been following the rehab advice and he’s back on the ice. He’s able to do very limited things but he’s working really hard and he’s hoping for a bounce-back year.” – Phil Osaer, head of goaltending scouting and development.
Wakiji continues, discussing Fulcher’s 2019-2020 regular season statistics, and it’s good to hear that Fulcher’s putting in extra time and effort to refine his craft.
