Fife Flyers Ice Hockey Club are delighted to announce the signing of American born, forward, Michael Cichy.
Michael spent a couple of years playing junior hockey in the United States Hockey League before being selected in the 7th round of the 2009 NHL entry draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He spent the next five years in the NCAA playing his college hockey with University of North Dakota and Western Michigan University. Born in the United States his mother was Polish and that’s where he has played for the last 10 years kick starting his professional career with Sanok in season 2014/15 where he played alongside former Flyers Bryan Pitton, David Turon, Justin DaCosta and Kris Hogg.
Since then he has become one of the most well-known players in the Polish Hockey League. Over the last decade no player has more points in Polish hockey than Michael who has 200 goals and 269 assists from his 375 games. The next closest, Krystian Dziubinski, is 114 points behind with only 33 fewer games played. He also set the record for points in a Polish Hockey League season during 2015-16 with 113 beating the previous record by ten.
With his mother’s Polish heritage it made selecting him for a spot on the Polish national team a straightforward decision as he made his international debut during that record setting season.
He has played for a total of six different teams in the last 10 years playing the majority of his games with GKS Tychy over five seasons with whom he won the Polish Championship three times and Cup once.
He also played in the Champions Hockey League in season 2018/19 and his goal against Bolzano was awarded as the goal of the tournament that season and helped secure the first ever win by a Polish team in the competition. In the last two seasons he was a team mate of Kevin Lindskoug’s when he iced with Unia Oswiecim and Podhale Nowy Targ.
On the signing of Cichy, Coach Tom Coolen said “Mike Cichy is a highly competitive, skilled player. I had the opportunity to watch Mike closely over 3 years and was always impressed by his speed and playing ability. He played at North Dakota a top NCAA school, was MVP in the USHL, and played for USA U17 and U18 Team. He can run the power play or kill penalties. He gives us quality depth down the middle. He is a proven winner.”
On his signing, Cichy commented “I’m very excited to join Fife, after a long career in Poland I’m very excited for a new journey. Playing for coach Coolen has always been a goal of mine and I want to make an impact for him and the organisation”.
