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Christian Fischer

Atlantic Snapshots: McAvoy, Zub, Fischer, Harvey-Pinard, Brannstrom

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Last night, it was reported that Boston Bruins defenseman, Charlie McAvoy would appeal the suspension given to him by the league for an illegal check to the head of Florida Panthers defenseman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Originally, the league determined that McAvoy would be issued a four-game suspension, and there are a few updates on the appeal process.

Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reports that the NHL and McAvoy have yet to schedule the appeal even through the day today and that McAvoy would ultimately like to see the suspension dropped to only three games. Nevertheless, Wyshynski also notes that from the side of the NHL, they are a bit surprised at the appeal decision given the ’cut and dry’ nature of the hit.

McAvoy did not play in last night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs due to the suspension, as well as defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort due to injuries, severely limiting the depth of the Bruins blue line. Up to this point in the season, McAvoy has played in nine games for Boston, scoring two goals and six assists while averaging nearly 24 minutes of ice time per night.

Other snapshots:

  • Ottawa Senators defenseman, Artem Zub, has missed the team’s last five games due to a concussion and is unfortunately set to miss more time. TSN1200 reports that Zub has experienced some form of a setback in his recovery, and will miss the next couple of games for the team. In his absence, Ottawa has a 1-4-0 record, falling to last place in the Atlantic Division, and second-to-last place in the entire Eastern Conference.
  • One of many new additions to the offensive core of the Detroit Red Wings, the team has announced that Christian Fischer is considered day-to-day, and may not play in tomorrow night’s game against the Bruins. Fischer has primarily been employed in a fourth-line role for the team after being non-tendered by the Arizona Coyotes last summer and has provided one assist through 11 games to start the year.
  • In another small bit of injury news, the Montreal Canadiens have announced that forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard is also considered day-to-day due to a lower-body injury. After an impressive debut last season putting up 20 points in 34 games, Harvey-Pinard only has four assists in 10 games this year, averaging around 13 and a half minutes of ice time per night.
  • Back to Ottawa, the team has received some positive news, as they shared that defenseman, Erik Brannstrom, has returned to practice after missing the last two games. As one of the main pieces coming over from the Vegas Golden Knights that sent Mark Stone the other way, Brannstrom has yet to score this season in only seven games played.

Red Wings Sign Christian Fischer

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July 2nd: Detroit has officially announced the signing, as it will be a one-year, $1.125MM deal for Fischer.

July 1st: The Red Wings have been active in filling out their roster today and they’re set to make another addition up front.  Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports (Twitter link) that Detroit is set to sign winger Christian Fischer to a one-year contract.  Financial terms of the deal are not yet known.

Fischer was among the many players non-tendered yesterday to avoid the risk of a higher-than-desired salary arbitration award.  The 26-year-old is coming off a bounce-back season offensively, picking up 13 goals and 14 assists in 80 games with Arizona last season.  For context, he had just 30 points in the previous three seasons combined, spanning 161 contests.

Assuming a deal is eventually finalized, Fischer should add some grit to Detroit’s bottom six as he’s averaging just under 1.9 hits per game over his seven-year career, spanning 398 games.  Fischer’s qualifying offer with Arizona was for just over $1.125MM and considering the fact that he’s coming off the second-best offensive season of his career, it stands to reason that he’ll be landing a nice raise on that amount.

Injury Notes: Pageau, Fischer, Schmaltz

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Kevin Kurtz of The Athletic is reporting that New York Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau could return to the Islanders lineup as early as tomorrow night. Pageau would be a welcome reinforcement to an Islanders squad that is currently occupying the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The 30-year-old Pageau has been out of the lineup since he suffered an upper body injury on February 11th in a game against the Montreal Canadiens. Pageau was later roughed up in practice a few days later and wasn’t put on IR until February 16th, although it was retroactive to February 11th.

The former Ottawa Senator has 29 points in 56 games in his fourth season with the Islanders and would be a welcome additional to a team that appears set to battle down to the wire for a birth in the postseason. Although he has spent most of the season on a line with Zach Parise and a carousel of other wingers, Pageau would give the Islanders  a strong penalty killer and face-off man. Pageau has garnered Selke votes in each of the past five seasons and would add a strong defensive prowess to an already strong defensive team.

  • Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports is reporting some updates on a couple of injured Arizona Coyotes players Nick Schmaltz and Christian Fischer. Morgan states that the Coyotes currently have no timeline on injured forward Schmaltz after he was a late scratch Sunday night against the Minnesota Wild. Schmaltz likely suffered the injury sometime on Saturday night in a game against the Colorado Avalanche. The 27-year-old had been heating up in recent weeks having notched 18 points in his past 15 games.
  • Arizona next plays Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames and they could have Fischer back in the lineup as Coach André Tourigny said he could play and is day-to-day at this time. Fischer was also injured in Saturday’s game against the Avalanche with an apparently lower body injury. He too missed last night’s game against the Wild. Fischer has been having one of the better seasons of his young career with 24 points in 65 games. He looked to be gaining some traction having had three points in four games heading into Saturday night, it’ll be interesting to see if he can keep it going when he does return to the Arizona lineup.

Arizona Coyotes Reassign Bokondji Imama, Milos Kelemen

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Monday, Mar. 13, 4:50 p.m.: Arizona reassigned both Imama and Kelemen to the minors today after yesterday’s overtime win against Minnesota. Both forwards played under 10 minutes and neither recorded a point, but Imama did fight Ryan Reaves early in the game.

Imama won’t be immediately eligible to play upon his return to Tucson, however. He received an automatic one-game suspension from the AHL for receiving an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the third period of his last game. He’ll have to sit out Tucson’s game Friday against the Calgary Wranglers.

Sunday, Mar. 12, 5:31 p.m.: Forwards Bokondji Imama and Milos Kelemen are headed back up from the minors to the Arizona Coyotes, a team tweet Sunday afternoon reveals.

The reinforcements from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners come as an injury could affect the Coyotes’ lineup, per PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan. Winger Christian Fischer left last night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche with a lower-body injury.

Both Imama and Kelemen have seen recent paper transactions. Imama was reassigned to Tucson on March 8 after a one-game emergency recall, recording three hits and a blocked shot in 9:38 of ice time against the St. Louis Blues. Kelemen was sent down on March 4 after his second recall of the season.

Kelemen, an under-the-radar free agent signing out of Czechia last offseason, has put up some decent offensive numbers in Tucson, recording 14 goals and 27 points in 55 games. Another recall could give him the opportunity to register his first NHL point.

Imama, a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, has 12 points in 41 appearances with Tucson this season.

Arizona Coyotes Extend Christian Fischer, Cam Dineen

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While seemingly going unqualified today, the Arizona Coyotes have extended right wing Christian Fischer on a one-year contract, according to the team. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports the deal is worth the equivalent of his qualifying offer, coming in at $1,125,875 for the one year. That could suggest Fischer and Arizona agreed to terms before qualifying offers were due today. The team also extended defenseman Cam Dineen on a one-year, two-way deal with undisclosed financial terms.

Drafted in the second round in 2015, Fischer’s development has plateaued in the past few years. While he likely won’t be the high-end middle-six power forward Arizona thought they were drafting, he’s still a decent contributor and, most importantly for Arizona, an experienced NHL player under contract. It helps matters that Fischer’s physical and exciting brand of hockey has endeared him to Coyotes fans, making it certainly a wise business decision to keep him around.

Fischer will be just the eighth Coyotes forward on a one-way contract next season. With Arizona needing to hit the cap floor, they’ll likely throw some money around in free agency to get players some cash that they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, but it’s a risky bet on having enough players and enough money. Retaining players like Fischer is crucial for the franchise to survive the next few years on and off the ice.

In 53 games last season, Fischer had five goals in 10 points. He has 84 points in 318 games in the desert.

Dineen 24, registered seven assists in his first 34 NHL games last season. The team’s third-round pick in 2016 figures to be a contender for their seventh defense spot next season and could even lock down a bottom-pairing role.

Jakob Chychrun, Christian Fischer Will Not Return This Season

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The Arizona Coyotes have six games remaining in the regular season to secure last place and the top odds for the 2022 draft lottery. They sit two points behind the Montreal Canadiens and have lost seven in a row, though at least part of those struggles has been because of a swathe of injuries. Two more players have now been ruled out for the rest of the year, as Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports tweets that both Jakob Chychrun and Christian Fischer will not return in 2021-22. Among the Coyotes’ injured players, only Antoine Roussel and Liam O’Brien have a chance of returning, according to Morgan.

Chychrun, 24, will once again be a target of headline writers across the hockey world this summer. The young defenseman was on the trading block for most of the year, but the Coyotes decided to hold on after not getting the offers they were looking for. His last game of the season was on March 12, when he exited a match against the Boston Bruins after less than six minutes of ice time.

While there’s not much to play for in the desert and losing is actually arguably more beneficial at the moment, Chychrun’s recent absence will do nothing to change the perception of him as an oft-injured risk. Through six full seasons in the NHL he has played just 337 game, an average of just over 56 per year (two of those seasons have been shortened by COVID-19) and he will finish with just 47 this time around. He actually had been playing the best hockey of the season just before going down, recording five goals and ten points in the six games preceding his injury.

Now he enters an uncertain offseason with three more years on his contract, and an organization that seems committed to a long rebuild. As one of the team’s biggest assets, Chychrun could still bring back a number of future pieces, but it’s unclear who exactly will be willing to pay the high price that general manager Bill Armstrong has set. Earlier this season reporting surfaced that the team was looking for three top assets–obviously, a price that was never met.

Fischer too faces an uncertain future in the desert. The 25-year-old forward has never been able to replicate the 15-goal, 33-point rookie season he had in 2017-18 and finishes this year with just five goals and ten points in 53 appearances. He now has just 43 goals in his 318-game career, and has settled into a depth role in the bottom six. A restricted free agent this offseason he will be eligible for salary arbitration and could be another piece moved out of town, should the team feel as though he’s not part of the long-term future.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Injury Notes: Barrie, Laughton, Fischer

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The Edmonton Oilers announced that they have officially activated defenseman Tyson Barrie off of injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Barrie had been placed on IR on March 7th, retroactive to March 5th, missing the past three games. Adding Barrie back into the lineup will give the Oilers more of an offensive punch on their back end and deepen their defensive core once again.

For Barrie, this trip to the IR was his third absence from the Oilers roster in 2022, having previously spent time on IR in late January and early February, as well as time in COVID protocol in January. Barrie has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence to his career since joining Edmonton before the 2020-21 season and signing a three-year, $13.5MM contract with the Oilers this past July. The Oilers will certainly count on Barrie to remain healthy down the stretch, as the team will need all it can get to secure a playoff spot in the incredibly tight Western Conference.

  • Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now reports that Philadelphia Flyers’ forward Scott Laughton is expected to remain out of the lineup indefinitely after suffering a concussion in the Flyers loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Losing Laughton is another tough blow to the Flyers, who have struggled with injuries the entire season. Particularly, as the team has struggled in the standings, Laughton has remained a steady force for the team, having a career year with 28 points in 54 games, and has also been a core piece in the locker room. No timetable has been given on Laughton’s return, however concussion related injuries can vary and considering the Flyers’ struggles, there is no reason to rush the forward back.
  • Arizona Coyotes’ head coach Andre Tourigny told reporters, including PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan, that forward Christian Fischer is day-to-day and is unlikely to play in tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins (Tweet). Tourigny also added that if Fischer does in fact sit, Hudson Fasching will play. Fischer has 10 points in 49 games this season for Arizona.

Arizona Coyotes Place Two In COVID Protocol

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Arizona Coyotes forward Christian Fischer and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol today, per a team tweet.

They become the fifth and sixth additions to Arizona’s COVID list. Liam O’Brien, Alex Galchenyuk, Jay Beagle, and Lawson Crouse.

Arizona, for the time being, is losing out on some solid defensive presences. Fischer had three goals and three assists through 22 games before entering protocol, and he’s one of the better defensive forwards on the Coyotes, though, and a skilled penalty killer. His presence there will be missed.

Lyubushkin had six assists through 29 games, and while he was averaging just 18:08 per game, he’s a good defender at even-strength.

Fischer and Lyubushkin, if they’re truly COVID positive, are eligible to return January 6 against Chicago if they’re healthy.

Johan Larsson Placed In COVID Protocol

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The Arizona Coyotes have placed Johan Larsson in the COVID protocol, making him unavailable for the time being. That comes just minutes after the team placed both Christian Fischer and Dmitrij Jaskin on injured reserve, recalling Hudson Fasching, Jan Jenik, and Ben McCartney in their place.

Larsson joins Andrew Ladd in the protocol, who was placed there over the weekend. The team did not confirm whether or not Larsson has tested positive, or given any indication of how long he will be out. Jaskin meanwhile is expected to miss the rest of the season, while Fischer was last listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He’ll have to miss at least a week with the IR designation.

For any Arizona fans hoping for a high draft pick to build the organization around, it appears they will get their wish. The team is 1-13-1 on the season and seems destined to finish in last place in the Central Division. Losing veteran players for any length of time will only provide an opportunity for younger options, though it seems unlikely that they will be able to right the ship and help the Coyotes become a competitive team. For a franchise that has seen draft picks stripped away and others flame out quickly, a strong class in 2022 is imperative.

Luckily, the team currently holds eight picks in the first two rounds, including three first-round selections, meaning there’s at least something to look forward to on the horizon.

Coyotes Reach Two-Year Deal With Christian Fischer

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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.

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