From Independence to Boise to Cedar Park, Sean Shapiro of Wrong Side of the Red Line and NHL.com has covered Maxime Lagacé's entire professional career with the Dallas Stars.
Signed by the Dallas as an undrafted free agent in 2012, Lagacé is easily the most unheralded of the four goalies which the Vegas Golden Knights have used this season. Both Malcolm Subban and Oscar Dansk were high draft picks, while Marc Andre-Fleury is a three-time Stanley Cup winner.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old was with the Stars organization until this summer. So who better than Shapiro to tell us more about the Golden Knights' newest masked man?
10th different team in 6 seasons, 4th #VegasBorn goalie to earn a win this yr, 1st NHL win for Maxime Lagacé pic.twitter.com/1M3S5xshAh
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 4, 2017
HockeyBuzz: What's the scouting report on Maxime Lagacé, strengths and weaknesses?
Sean Shapiro: Lagacé was always a low-risk, potentially high-reward free agent signing for Dallas. He was undrafted and moved around in the QMJHL quite a bit and played with four different teams. His first-year pro went very poorly in both the ECHL and AHL, and at one point, he was on the AHL roster as a practice goalie because the Stars couldn't find an ECHL team to take him. They actually considered sending him to the SPHL, but eventually found a spot for him in Bakersfield (still in the ECHL at the time) at the end of the season.
Lagacé is an athletic goalie and his quickness is the base of his success. Before he really found his game with Texas he still often made big dramatic glove saves, highlight reel variety, where he could make up for lack of positioning. Rebound control has gone from an area of concern to a relative strength, but there are still stretches where he struggles controlling and directing the second shot. Positionally, there are some flaws in his game, particularly when it comes to sealing the post, and part of that falls on the Stars who didn't have a full-time goalie coach in the minor leagues to help correct that.
HB: After a breakout season with the Texas Stars in 2015-16, Lagacé seemed to have a bit of a drop-off the following year. What happened?
SS: Lagacé was tremendous in the NHL preseason, but couldn't live up to expectations and carry that into the AHL season. It didn't help that the Texas Stars were not a very good defensive team, and there, goalies were often left by themselves -- it wasn't an easy situation to thrive in. Lagacé also didn't deal well with new expectations, traditionally, he's been a mentally strong goalie because he was always trying to prove everyone wrong. Now, there was an expectation that he would be the AHL No. 1 goalie and potential NHL option, and he couldn't deliver on those expectations.
If not for the rest of the Stars' goalie issues, Lagacé probably would have had a chance to be back in the organization this season. But Dallas needed more solid, less-risky options with two older goalies in the NHL. That's why they opted to bring in Mike McKenna as the organization's third goalie and let Lagacé walk.
HB: What is Lagacé's NHL ceiling, if any? What has stopped him from reaching it?
SS: Personally I think his NHL ceiling is as a 1B goalie. I don't think he can be an every night starter, but I think he could work his way into a back-up that plays and can be trusted for 20 to 30 games a season. If the Stars could have been more patient and re-signed him, he could have been in line to eventually be the back-up behind Ben Bishop, but as said before, Dallas didn't have the luxury of taking another risk.
HB: Anything else interesting to add about Lagacé?
SS: He's a good story, and personally, I'd like to see him succeed. He never ended up in the SPHL, but from that consideration to the NHL is pretty impressive.
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