The Surrey Eagles organization is pleased to announce the team has signed Coquitlam native Christian Fitzgerald! Fitzgerald isn’t a complete newcomer to the team, as the 17 year old forward has already played 5 games as an affiliate player with this season. Fitzgerald was a member of the Delta Hockey Academy Prep team last season with the Canadian School Sport Hockey League, and scored his first BCHL goal in the Eagles 5-3 win over the Langley Rivermen on September 22nd.
Fitzgerald will look to continue his growth as a young player with the Eagles, as he earned a spot on the team through his tenacious play and willingness to fight in the dirty areas. It’s not all grit for Christian though, as he put up 16 goals and 33 points in 36 games. Fitzgerald’s entire skill set was on display when he scored his first goal, and you can check it out below.
Christian told surreyeagles.ca about what he’s going to bring to the team now that he’s been signed to the main roster. “I’d say I’m a hardworking, two way forward and that one of my better attributes is my skating ability. Hopefully, I’ll be able to hop up in the rush while also playing strong down low in our own end with my teammates.”
It hasn’t been a seamless transition for the young forward, but he’s confident in his ability to keep up with the faster pace of play the BCHL provides. “You know, it’s been a bit of a bigger transition than I expected. Now though, I’ve got my feet in the water and the pace of play hasn’t been an issue for me to keep up with.”
For head coach Cam Keith, he gets a player he’s had his eyes on for a little while, and is happy to finally bring Fitzgerald on full time. “We’re extremely excited, and we feel very fortunate he fell into our lap… It’s nice to see him come in and earn a spot on our hockey team.”
On top of finally bringing him on board, Cam admitted Christian, while young, brings a little bit of everything to this Eagles roster, including some much needed versatility which Cam values greatly. “Yeah, he brings a little bit of everything to the table. He’s got speed, size, he’s good defensively, and understands where he should be on the ice. He doesn’t show signs of his age, and he’s already gotten accustomed to the league. Finally, he’s got some offensive creativity to his game. He sees the ice really well, he can distribute, doesn’t mind shooting the puck and gets himself into the dirty areas.”
You can catch Christian Fitzgerald wearing number 24 on the ice, and your next chance to potentially catch him at ‘The Nest’ will be October 11, 2019 as the Eagles will face the Coquitlam Express. You can start the preorder process by going to our single game ticket page on our website! Link is https://www.surreyeagles.ca/single-game-tickets.
