Kaden Fulcher is working hard to make it to the next level of pro hockey.
The Brigden goalie talked to students at Lambton Centennial School in their internet classroom Tuesday about his rise through the ranks of hockey from Mooretown to the Detroit Red Wings.
Fulcher has been playing with the Toledo Walleye – the AA farm team of the Detroit Red Wings however he’s been out with an injury since October.
Fulcher had surgery two-and-a-half months ago to shave a bone growth from his hip. “It’s a surgery a lot of guys have,” he says.
He was just beginning his rehab when the pandemic started closing borders. He returned to Brigden with instructions for his workouts in hand and then met with his doctors via video link to check his progress.
Fulcher says the players are in summer mode right now but he has his mind set on moving up the ladder of professional hockey, closer to the NHL.
He says Toledo is a “really good East Coast organization but the next step is the first affiliated team, the Grand Rapids Griffons.
“I’m trying to work my way up.”
Fulcher has already had a taste of the big leagues; last year, he was called up by the Detroit Red Wings for a handful of games. It was an experience he won’t soon forget.
“It was surreal coming from Brigden, Ontario and coming from humble parents,” he says. “Wow, this is unbelievable stepping on the ice with the best players in the world…it is surreal that a kid from Brigden is on the ice with them.”
Fulcher says he only made it there because his dad instilled in him the importance of hard work.
“My dad taught me to work hard for everything you want in life,” he says.
“It didn’t matter what I did…as long as I was working hard at what I was doing, he and mom would be proud of me and I would go somewhere.”
Ironically, while Fulcher loves hockey as a teen he didn’t make the LCCVI high school squad.
He tried out in Grade 9, but there were other Grade 12 students who deserved the opportunity, he says. By Grade 10, he had been drafted into the Ontario Hockey League and that meant he couldn’t play high school sports.
If he could have, Fulcher told the students, he would have played basketball.
Right now, Fulcher is working hard on his rehab and spending time with his German Shepherd whom he loves like “a son.”
And he’s waiting to hear how hockey will be affected by the ongoing pandemic.
Right now, he’s not expecting to cross the border for any mini camps, but hopes to be back in the US soon with his skates on.