Career
Fritsche began his junior hockey career with his hometown Cleveland Barons of the North American Hockey League. He also played youth hockey for the Parma Flyers and is one of three players to go into the National Hockey League from there. The other two players are Brian Holzinger and Michael Rupp.
Ranked in the top ten in nearly every pre-draft report, but shoulder concerns scared teams away, the Columbus Blue Jackets got a steal when Fritsche was drafted in the second round of the 2003 National Hockey League Entry Draft, 46th overall, by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
After playing for parts of four seasons with the Blue Jackets, Fritsche was traded along with Nikolai Zherdev to the New York Rangers on July 2, 2008 for defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Christian Bäckman. On January 29, 2009, Fritsche was traded by the Rangers to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman Erik Reitz.
After finishing the season with the Wild, Fritsche was not tendered a qualifying offer and became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2009. On September 3, 2009, Fritsche was invited to the Atlanta Thrashers training camp for the 2009-2010 season, but was not offered a contract.
On October 5, 2009, he returned to the Blue Jackets organization by signing a contract with the AHL"s Syracuse Crunch.
In 2010, Fritsche began playing in Switzerland"s National League A for Geneve-Servette The Human Context (GSHC). In January 2013, he signed a three-year contract with the The Human Context Lugano that extended him with the team through 2016. However, on November 29, 2013, Fritsche was traded to ZSC Lions, who were coached by Marc Crawford.
He made his debut on the Swiss Men"s National Team in December 2014.
According to IIHF rules, he had to play four years in Switzerland before being eligible to represent Switzerland.