Christian Fischer: My heart was set on Red Wings return

While there were a handful of Detroit Red Wings players from last season's squad that just missed out on a postseason spot that are now playing elsewhere for the upcoming campaign, one player that GM Steve Yzerman saw fit to retain was defensive forward Christian Fischer. 

Fischer, who played the majority of 2023-24 on Detroit's fourth line while also killing penalties, signed a one-year contract with an identical AAV of $1.125 million for his second year with the franchise. And as he puts it, it was something that he wanted to see happen. 

“This is where I wanted to be,” Fischer explained last month shortly after the contract was signed. “I told my agent that right at the end of year. I really enjoyed my time with the guys last year. My heart was 100 percent set on Detroit. Obviously you can’t really say that when you’re a free agent, but the internal discussions were always to come back here.”

While Fischer's offensive production dipped to just five goals last season after having scored 13 the previous year while playing with the Arizona Coyotes, he knows it's not how he'll be measured.

“I know I should be well over the double-digit goal mark,” Fischer said. “Just wasn’t that dialed in last year and didn’t have the best fortune with point totals, but not my biggest concern. That’s never going to be how I’m really measured in performance.”

Meanwhile, Fischer will be focused along with the rest of his teammates on helping the Red Wings end their postseason drought, which is currently the 2nd longest current streak in the NHL behind only the Buffalo Sabres. 

“I don’t think anyone was too happy with how things shook out (last season),” Fischer said. “As athletes and hockey players, every returning guy probably has a little bit more motivation this summer to take that next step. Whatever it may be, just to improve your game. It doesn’t get any closer than coming down to a tiebreaker.”

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