Our 2022 Buffalo Sabres player report cards continue today with a look at defenseman Casey Fitzgerald.
Total Season Stats (Sabres): 36 GP | 0 G | 6 A | 6 PTS
Age: 25
Contract Status: Signed through 2022-23 ($750,000)
Fitzgerald is one of those players who flourished more in the AHL this year with the Rochester Americans than he did at the NHL level. He made his NHL debut this season & appeared in 36 games with the Sabres, but was much more effective with the Amerks. In 28 games, he put up 12 points and played an aggressive game, accruing 43 penalty minutes. He also scored seven points in 10 playoff games.
Where he did see some success at the NHL level was, unsurprisingly, the physical aspect of his play. With 86 hits, he was fourth on the team’s blue line, behind only Robert Hagg, Mattias Samuelsson & Rasmus Dahlin. Otherwise, he didn’t really stand out significantly – statistically or visually – this season. For a guy making league minimum, that honestly sounds about right.
Overall, the highlights of his season come in Rochester games. This was a huge goal in the team’s game against Belleville:
CASEY FITZGERALD
TIE GAME
LET’S GOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/p1YCkV5hK3— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) May 5, 2022
To his credit, he did have this nice play in the Sabres’ February game against the Isles:
Just a beautiful heads-up pass from Casey Fitzgerald (@CaseyFitz97). 👏 pic.twitter.com/YmwPnvnEUj
— NHL (@NHL) February 16, 2022
Season Grade: C
Grade Casey Fitzgerald on his 2021-22 season.
| A – excelled above expectation | 13 |
| B – did better than expectation | 120 |
| C – met expectation | 229 |
| D – did worse than expectation | 33 |
| F – did much worse than expectation | 1 |