The stories of the two are remarkably similar. Although people often assume successful athletes had a clear path to glory laid out in front of them, they had to forge it one step at a time.
"I always dreamed of playing in the top Czech league. Back then, I didn’t even see myself in the NHL or the national team," says Francouz, who eventually played in the Extraliga for Plzen and Litvinov.
Francouz and Cech agreed they both progressed gradually, with the next milestone always the immediate goal. After the Extraliga, the former ice hockey goaltender set his sights on a move abroad.
"I thought that if I spent at least a year there, earned enough money, was happy and achieved something, I would finally feel fulfilled," he said.
"But that didn’t happen. Then I saw the guys playing in the NHL and thought I could do it too."
He recalled that journalists asked him about the NHL at the time, and his answer was fairly clear: "No, that’s not for me. I’m a smaller goalie and I don’t think I have a chance," Francouz had replied.
Little did he know that he would go on to play 73 games in the world’s best ice hockey league and lift the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche.
It raises the question: does someone become a goalkeeper, or are they simply born one?
"I think I was born a goalie. I wasn’t tall, so I had to learn to use my strengths instead. I was quick and clever enough to make up for my height. I had to perfect my strengths to compete with the very best," concluded the now 36-year-old Plzeň native.
The full television version of this instalment of the Big Pete documentary series will be available on CANAL+ Sport and the CANAL+ streaming service in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Poland, Myanmar, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Hungary, and on SuperSport in South Africa and Switzerland.