Christian Fischer blazed the path that future Arizona Coyotes regulars like Conor Garland and Lawson Crouse would follow to their NHL dreams. While he was not the first call-up from Tucson for the Coyotes, he was the first graduate from the organization’s new development structure.
Fischer most of the 2016-2017 season in Tucson with the Roadrunners, and he made the most of his time. The budding power forward skated in 57 games, scoring 20 goals and adding 27 assists. Not bad for your first season of professional hockey.
Fischer also skated in 7 games total after receiving two separate call-ups to the Coyotes, scoring 3 goals in that time. He even scored in his debut against the Tampa Bay Lightning with his parents and family in the house.
Christian Fischer pictured in Tucson early on in the 2016-2017 season.
Fischer’s jersey is an interesting one.
Through my research, I have verified with the team that the Roadrunners used just one white and one red jersey each season. However, there is definitely another 2016-2017 White Set jersey from Christian Fischer out there. It was sold by Detroit Hockey Company in their very first set of Roadrunners jerseys.
What does that mean for this one, then? There’s two possibilities.
The first and most likely is that it was issued to him after one of his call-ups to the NHL. That has happened with other prominent players, including Conor Garland in 2018-2019.
It could also have been employed out of necessity.
Photographs from a game against the San Jose Barracuda in April show a very large repair on the shoulder of Fischer’s jersey. Given the size of the hole and the stitching required, it’s possible he just needed to wear another jersey on the road until the team had time to repair the first one.
Whatever the reason, this Fischer gamer has very little wear to be found.
The majority is actually found inside the right sleeve, which is a new place for a stick mark for me. There are a couple of other faint marks on the arms or body, but nothing else notable. Fischer has signed the jersey on the back.