Veteran Red Wings forward day-to-day with upper-body injury

The Detroit Red Wings have announced that forward Christian Fischer will miss the team’s Monday game as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He left Detroit’s Saturday matchup after the first shift of the second period, seeming staggered after a sandwiched hit from Nashville’s Jeremy Lauzon and Mark Jankowski. Fischer recorded one shot through six shifts prior to his exit. 

Head coach Derek Lalonde shared that the team is considering calling up a forward, though it may instead opt to run 11 forwards and seven defenders, per Ansar Khan of MLive.

Fischer has returned to his role as a go-to depth forward for the Red Wings, earning 13:34 of ice time in Detroit’s first game, posting a pair of shot attempts and a -1 rating. 

Fischer recorded five goals and 19 points in 79 games from Detroit’s fourth line last year. That was enough to earn him another one-year deal in Detroit, though he’s still searching for the third-line role and hot production he earned through seven years with the Coyotes. Fischer managed a career-high 15 goals and 33 points with Arizona in 2017-18, and rivaled that mark again with 13 goals and 27 points in 2022-23.

Fischer is a hard-nosed and effective depth forward, making his absence notable even in a minor role. The Red Wings don't have an extra forward on the roster as it stands, though they’ll have their pick of hardened depth forwards, like Joe Snively or Sheldon Dries, or top prospects like Nate Danielson and Marco Kasper, should they opt to call someone up from Grand Rapids. The Griffins kicked off their regular season this weekend, with Kasper, Carter Mazur and Dominik Shine the only forwards to record a point through their first two games.