Cade Patrick Fairchild (born January 15, 1989) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

. He is currently an unrestricted free agent who most recently played for KalPa in the Finnish

Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

. He was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the 4th round (96th overall) of the

2007 NHL Entry Draft The 2007 NHL Entry Draft was the 45th NHL Entry Draft. It was hosted at Nationwide Arena in the city of Columbus, Ohio, on June 22, 2007. The draft consisted of seven rounds with rounds two through seven taking place on June 23, 2007. The draft ...

. Fairchild competed at the

2006 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2006 IIHF World U18 Championships were held in Ängelholm and Halmstad, Sweden. The championships began on April 12, 2006 and finished on April 22, 2006. Games were played at Ängelholms Ishall in Ängelholm and Sannarps Isstadion in Halmstad ...

where he won a gold medal as a member of Team USA. He was also a member of the USA U-18 team at the 2007 IIHF U-18 World Championship, where he led all defensemen in points.

Playing career

Prior to turning professional, Fairchild attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

where he was the top scoring defenseman with the

Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ...

team which competes in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's Division I in the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

conference. On March 18, 2011, Fairchild was signed to a three-year entry-level contract with the St. Louis Blues. On November 29, 2011, Fairchild made his NHL debut playing 14 shifts in the Blues' 2-1 victory over the home team

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL) ...

. Five days after his NHL debut, Fairchild was returned to the

Peoria Rivermen Peoria Rivermen is the name of four minor league hockey clubs: *Peoria Rivermen (IHL), named as such 1984–1996, formerly the Peoria Prancers 1982–1984 *Peoria Rivermen (ECHL), 1996–2005 *Peoria Rivermen (AHL), 2005–2013 *Peoria Rivermen (SP ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

(AHL). In 2012, Fairchild was named an AHL All-Star, and also named to the AHL All Rookie Team. He was recalled 4 times to St. Louis and played 5 games, tallying 1 assist. During the 2013–14 season, having had his season hampered by injury and his development stagnating within the Blues organization, on March 12, 2014 Fairchild was traded by St. Louis to the

Phoenix Coyotes The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mull ...

and assigned to their AHL affiliate, the

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks fr ...

. Fairchild was not re-signed by the Coyotes, and on July 8, 2014, he agreed to a one-year with Russian club, Metallurg Novokuznetsk of the

KHL The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

. He left Metallurg after a second season with the club and took up an offer from Sweden, signing with Rögle BK on July 9, 2016. In October 2018, Fairchild joined KalPa in the Finnish

from

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

in the Kontinental Hockey League.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* 1989 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Chicago Wolves players Dinamo Riga players Ice hockey people from Duluth, Minnesota Kalamazoo Wings (ECHL) players KalPa players Metallurg Novokuznetsk players Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Peoria Rivermen (AHL) players Portland Pirates players Rögle BK players St. Louis Blues draft picks St. Louis Blues players USA Hockey National Team Development Program players {{US-icehockey-defenseman-stub