Oct 19: The Coyotes have officially announced the two-year, one-way contract. Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider reports that the deal will carry an average annual value of $1MM. GM Bill Armstrong released a statement on the deal:
We are very pleased to sign Christian to a multi-year contract. Christian is a hard-working, power forward who is strong along the boards. He will add size and toughness to our forward group.
Oct 18: While today’s qualifying offer deadline came and went without a deal for Coyotes winger Christian Fischer, they were able to agree on one soon after. Craig Morgan of Arizona Coyotes Insider reports (Twitter link) that the two sides are in agreement on a two-year, one-way contract pending approval from the league in registering the deal. Financial terms are not yet known.
The 23-year-old was a second-round pick of Arizona (32nd overall) back in 2015 and made his NHL debut one year later while becoming a regular in 2017-18. That season turned out to be Fischer’s best so far as he had 15 goals and 18 assists in 79 games which made it look like he was well on his way to being a core player for the Coyotes.
Things haven’t gone anywhere near as well since then, however. His point total dipped to 18 in his sophomore season and he only managed half of that in 2019-20, collecting just six goals and three assists in 56 games while being a somewhat frequent healthy scratch. Accordingly, the possibility of Fischer simply accepting his qualifier looked like a legitimate possibility.
Instead, it appears the two sides will settle on a bit more security although the price tag on it shouldn’t be much higher than his $874,125 qualifying offer. The Coyotes already project to be over the Upper Limit of the salary cap and while Marian Hossa is eligible for LTIR once again in the final year of his contract, Arizona won’t want to spend all of that money already.
How does he add size and toughness though cause he’s not a new addition