The first part of this might be a little traumatic as an Edmonton Oilers fan reading this, but Paul Fischer was acquired in the 2024 off-season from St. Louis along with a third-round pick in 2028. This trade was basically seen as a “sorry, we offer-sheeted your top two prospects. Please don’t match either, and we will send you a Notre Dame defenceman and a pick.” But throughout the season, Fischer has climbed up my personal rankings of Edmonton Oilers prospects, and in some time you’ll see just how high I rank him.

I want to talk about the numbers quickly Fischer put up this year and explain why his offensive numbers are impressive to me. The American prospect played in 33 games, scoring six goals and adding on another 17 assists for 23 points. On the surface, that doesn’t seem incredible, there is an explanation for this. I watched a fair amount of Notre Dame, and that team was unpleasant to view. The Fighting Irish went 9-23-5 on the season, with a record of 3-14-1 while they were on the road. This was not a good team this year; the numbers will tell you that, and if you watch their games, you will arrive at the same conclusion. On Notre Dame’s 103 goals scored, Fischer had a point on 22 per cent of them, while missing four games. Paul Fischer’s point total is more about the team around him than his actual play on the ice. Let’s breakdown his game a bit.

This is where the game starts for the 6-foot defenceman. Throughout the whole year Fischer continued to refine his skating ability, which in turn helps him stay up tight to wingers along the wall and angle them to the boards on a rush against. There are going to be two clips below showing different instances of him controlling a near-perfect gap and creating turnovers.

In the first clip, you can watch as Fischer just gives the Ohio State team no space at all to start a transition, and when they are finally able to get the puck across the red, the Fighting Irish assistant captain is there to meet them and cause an offside. The second clip is a tougher play to defend against as it is a straight up two-on-two with Notre Dame having some lazy backcheckers making their way back. But this is not a problem at all for Fischer as he doesn’t allow the winger’s outside shoulder to beat his inside shoulder, he angles him to the boards, and as the Michigan Wolverine player goes to make a move, it’s an easy steal for the top Notre Dame defenceman.

I don’t want to spoil too much of my rankings article coming in the summer, but this is an area of the game that has continued to blossom for the former fifth-round pick and why he climbs up my list. I want to highlight his work on the breakout and in the transition game because this will be the crucial part to becoming an NHLer.

Of course I had to put in a transition clip that includes his defending, but I love how he prioritizes taking the man once he loses sight of the puck, Fischer plays for positioning over getting a bad possession. But once he is able to locate the puck he sticks on the forward and causes a turnover. Fischer doesn’t wait around, he jumps at the opportunity to transition the puck.

Once Fischer gets a bit of space, the American prospect is able to do a lot of good with the puck. There have been multiple instances of Fischer going end-to-end and making a play with the puck, in the above clip he is able to find a wide open teammate who just cant find a shot on goal. Whenever there is an opportunity to jump into the rush or activate in the offensive zone, Fischer will take it.

This clip is more along the lines of how I picture the Notre Dame defenceman in the NHL. Fischer plays the retrieval perfectly and finds the open man using a backhand pass. But once again you can see the aggressive mindset on the left-shot defenceman as he wants to get into the rush with the forwards after making his pass. The final two clips below are showing off Fischer’s lateral mobility and how it can open up passing lanes or opportunities for himself.

Fischer uses the whole ice surface to his advantage, throwing fakes at the opposing forwards and trying to create any lane for himself to shoot or make a pass to a teammate. In the second clip he just misses the forward back door with a great backhand look cross-ice. The strength of the defenceman’s game is his defensive play, but with the steps Fischer continues to take I wouldn’t be surprised to see another point jump next year.

As I said, I don’t want to ruin my ranking’s article, however Fischer is now a top two defensive prospects in the Oilers system. Fischer showed off his excellent defensive pedigree, he showed that he can create offence even when his team might not be doing the same, but the most important factor is that he continues to improve. The skating and strength have gotten much better over his time in the NCAA. The leading scoring defenceman for Notre Dame doesn’t need to be signed till August 2027, Fischer will have another full year of development before it’s time to put pen to paper and for the Oilers’ sake, I hope he stays in our pipeline.