Zach Fucale is reportedly looking to make his way back to the NHL.
Per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, Fucale has hired agent Dan Milstein to help get him back into the top league after spending two seasons in the KHL with Traktor Chelyabinsk. The former Washington Capitals goaltender headed to Russia after the 2022-23 season, which saw him win a Calder Cup on the Hershey Bears as the backup to Hunter Shepard.
“Hearing that Zach Fucale has hired Dan Milstein to help facilitate his @NHL comeback,” Weekes tweeted. “Fucale has been the top goaltender in the KHL over the past two seasons, and there’s significant interest from @NHL clubs for the 2025-26 season.”
Milstein is one of the most prolific agents in today’s NHL, sporting 62 active clients per PuckPedia. He is the agent for Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas and Caps prospects Ilya Protas and Eriks Mateiko.
Fucale has been fantastic for Traktor after Evgeny Kuznetsov helped recruit him to his hometown team in 2022. The 29-year-old backstop was a finalist for the KHL’s best goaltender award last year, posting a 24-17-4 record with a 2.16 goals-against average, a .929 save percentage, and six shutouts.
Fucale has repeated that same success this season, going 14-8-2 with a 2.07 goals-against average, a .924 save percentage, and five shutouts in 25 games. He is the number-one netminder on a Traktor team that currently sits first in the Kharlamov Division with a 22-9-4 record.
The Quebec native has made four career NHL appearances, all with the Capitals during the 2021-22 campaign. In those games, Fucale had a 1-1-1 record, a 1.75 goals-against average, a .924 save percentage, and one shutout. He stopped 48 consecutive shots during his first three appearances in the NHL, setting the NHL record for the longest shutout streak to start a career.
Fucale was originally a second-round draft selection of the Montreal Canadiens in the 2013 NHL Draft. He bounced around nine different AHL and ECHL teams before making his NHL debut with the Capitals.
