Bruins
A three-year player at BU, Chiasson has scored 10+ goals five times in his NHL career.
Jim Montgomery and the Bruins are going to have no shortage of options up front when Boston’s training camp opens next month.
The Bruins announced on Monday afternoon that they have signed veteran forward Alex Chiasson to a professional tryout (PTO) agreement. Chiasson will report to Boston’s training camp next month at Warrior Ice Arena and will try to earn a pro contract — be it with Boston or the Providence Bruins.
Chiasson, 32, has played with seven different teams in his NHL career. Last season, he scored six goals and posted nine points over 20 games with the Detroit Red Wings, including a pair of goals against the Bruins on March 11 and 12th. He also posted 20 points in 29 games with Detroit’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, last season.
Chiasson has ties to the area, playing three seasons at Boston University from 2009-12. The Montreal native was regularly been linked to the Bruins for years, with Boston likely intrigued with his 6-foot-4 frame and presence as a netfront option on the power play.
Despite his status as a journeyman across the NHL, Chiasson has been a solid scorer at various stops in his career, surpassing the 10-goal mark five times in his career. His best season came in 2018-19 with the Oilers, when he scored 22 goals and posted 38 points.
Chiasson’s large frame has allowed him to do plenty of damage on the power play over the years, with five of his six goals in Detroit coming on the man advantage.
As noted by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson, the only players in the NHL to score as many power-play goals (30) in fewer games (270) than Chiasson since the 2018-19 season are Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, Buffalo’s Tage Thompson, Buffalo’s Victor Olofsson, and Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov.
Chiasson joins what is looking like a very crowded Bruins forward grouping in 2023-24.
While a fellow netfront presence in James van Riemsdyk could be in line for steady power-play shifts next season, Chiasson stands as a potential contingency plan in that spot if he puts together a strong camp and preseason. Jake DeBrusk could earn regular looks at the netfront on the PP1 unit as well.
Chiasson, who primarily plays at right wing, does have an uphill climb when it comes to cracking Boston’s roster, with other veterans like Milan Lucic, Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown, Jesper Boqvist, Jayson Megna, A.J. Greer, Anthony Richard and Trent Frederic all expected to fight for spots during camp.
Youngsters like Jakub Lauko, Marc McLaughlin, Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov, Johnny Beecher and John Farinacci will also try to carve out spots up in the NHL ranks this fall.
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Originally posted 2023-08-22 04:02:52.