Coyotes Report Cards: Christian Fischer

The Arizona Coyotes did a good job shipping out players as part of the rebuild. As a result, very few players remain from years ago. One of the few players still with the team since being drafted all those years ago is forward Christian Fischer.

Games Played: 53

Goals: 5

Assists: 5

TOI/Games Played: 13:07

PP TOI: 53:54

PK TOI: 44:09

The Arizona Coyotes drafted Christian Fischer in the second round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, 32nd overall. The native of Chicago, IL, made his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season, and by the 2017-18 season, he was in the NHL full time. His first full season saw him set career-highs in goals (15), assists (18), and points (33).

Unfortunately, Fischer hasn’t come close to reaching any of those numbers in the years since. Moreover, Fischer’s dip in production has come with a change of role, and he is now mostly playing in the bottom six.

Fischer’s stats have held steady for the past three seasons, which is unfortunate because the team played a few 82-game season this past year. For the past three years could expect to see Fischer get about 10 points in 50 odd games.

Fischer did see one significant change last season compared to the previous one. Under the final year of Head Coach Rick Tocchet, Fischer was a significant part of the penalty kill. He was third among forwards in short-handed time on ice behind Christian Dvorak and Lawson Crouse, logging 94 minutes and 13 seconds short-handed.

This past season that number dropped to 44 minutes and nine seconds. Fischer had some stiffer competition last season from veterans like Loui Eriksson and Antoine Roussel, as well as Clayton Keller, who André Tourigny liked to play on the penalty kill. Still, given his limited role in other areas, it may not be a good sign that his time was halved despite playing about the same number of games.

But a player’s value is not only accessed on the ice. Fischer was one of the players who joined Clayton Keller when he spoke to the Tempe City Council, a sign of off-ice leadership that the team should value.

Grade: C

Future:

Fischer is a pending restricted free agent, so we should find out more about his future with the team soon. The Coyotes’ quality prospects are still developing, so we will likely see another season with lower-skilled players as the team looks to enter year two of a five-year rebuild.

The team has a pretty good idea of what kind of player Fischer is, and it will be up to Bill Armstrong and André Tourigny to decide if he provides enough support for the Desert Dogs to be worth extending. However, it does seem doubtful that the team will lock him up long-term or for much money.