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Quebec Remparts officially get Zach Fucale, Matt Murphy; Halifax Mooseheads put pair in best position for Memorial Cup

Neate Sager
Team Canada goaltender Zachary Fucale keeps an eye on the action at the World Junior Hockey Championship team selection camp in St. Catharines, Ont. on Monday, December 15, 2014. Fucale will start in goal for Canada's first world junior exhibition game Friday. Even though he hasn't been anointed the No. 1 goaltender, he's laser focused on his job even amid reports he has been traded in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Evidently, the last time a Quebec League goalie was traded while awy with Team Canada was prologue to how the Halifax Mooseheads handled the Zach Fucale file.

In what's somewhat old news alreaady since a Fucale to the Memorial Cup host Quebec Remparts move was seen as a hot topic since the summer, the Mooseheads made it official during Friday's first day of the Q's trade period. The timing is interesting; in 2009-10, Jake Allen's move from the Montreal Juniors to Drummondville wasn't disclosed until the day after the world junior ended. Doing it this way means it's out of the way before the the 19-year-old Fucale takes his place between the pipes for Team Canada's first world junior championship exhibition game on Friday vs. Russia and, of course, before the Montreal Canadiens prospect lands in the maestrom that awaits him at Bell Centre on Boxing Day. The Mooseheads might have dragged out the process in hope of yielding a bigger return, but ultimately that is not the classiest way to treat two loyal performers in Fucale and 19-year-old defenceman Matt Murphy.


The spoils of the deal, via Monty Mosher:

The trade had been widely rumoured in league circles. The league Christmas trading period opened on Friday, allowing the deal to be made official.

Halifax also gives the Remparts a fifth-round selection in the 2015 QMJHL draft in exchange for 19-year-old goalie Eric Brassard along with Quebec’s first and third-round picks in 2016 and first and second-round picks in 2018.

Halifax will also get defenceman Cody Donaghey at this summer’s draft and send back the 2018 second-round selection. (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)

Indeed, it's one of those QMJHL two-part deals. And it means a ballyhooed Habs prospect was traded for an under-the-radar Leafs signing.

The Remparts (.629 point pct. in 35 games, fifth overall in the 18-team QMJHL) weren't necessarily deficient in goal during the first half with Brassard and impressive 17-year-old Callum Booth. Fucale is Fucale, though, what with his cord-cottage CV that includes his upcoming second go-around with Team Canada, 126 regular-season wins and a Memorial Cup win as a 17-year-old with the vaunted 2013 Mooseheads. The Remparts have also shown a need to fortify their defence and Murphy is a fourth-year defender whose one-raw game has undergone a lot of refining since the start of the '13-14 campaign.

The move doesn't necessarily put the Remparts over the top, but as of this moment they would really have to go sideways to not be a competitive Memorial Cup host team (and really, the first since the victorious 2012 Shawinigan Cataractes). It's anticipated that the onus on the Remparts to deliver in May in the valedictory for the old Colisée is going to be unimaginably high, so it's even better to add Fucale due to his experience with these short tournaments.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.