(UPDATE 9:31 AM)- It has been rumoured for more than a week now and today the Ottawa Senators made it official, announcing they have signed restricted free agent goaltender Robin Lehner to a new three year contract with a cap hit of $2.225 mil a season. Lehner will earn $1.5M next season, $2.025M in year two and, $3.15M in the third year of the contract.
On Tuesday, we looked at one of the off season acquisitions for the Senators in David Legwand. Today we’ll take a closer look at another new face and probably the most significant piece coming back to Ottawa in the deal that sent Jason Spezza to the Stars this off season.
While the Senators would be the first to admit they went for quantity over quality in the return for Spezza, Alex Chiasson was certainly the most intriguing part of the package from the Dallas stars. The 23 year old Montreal native is coming off his first full season in the NHL, finishing with 13 and 35 points in 79 games.
Chiasson also appeared in 7 games at the end of the 2012/2013 season, scoring six times and proving he was ready to make the jump to the National Hockey League. He picked up right where he left off this past season, scoring in his first three games, becoming just the sixth player in NHL history to score nine goals in his first ten games in the league.
Looking a little closer at his start to the 2013/2014 season, what’s really impressive was the number of shots Chiasson was generating. In the first 14 games of the season, he had 48 shots on goal. That’s good enough for about 3.43 shots a game. By comparison a guy like Phil Kessel is around 3.8 a game. He slowed down significantly after that hot start though. Over the next 14 games he registered just 17 shots on goal or just 1.2 shots per game. And he never really seemed to get it going again after that.
Towards the end of December Chiasson battled a really bad flu that saw him drop almost 15 pounds. He would only miss a couple games but those who watched him closely have suggested that the mid-season set back really held him back down the stretch. Then in March, Chiasson was shaken after seeing teammate Rich Peverley collapse during a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Again, Chiasson would only miss one game but it was clearly an incident that stuck with him.
After what was an up and down season, the Ottawa Senators are certainly hoping to see more of the Chiasson that finished the 2012-2013 season and started last season. He tailed off a little bit, like many rookies do in their first season in the league, but in the case of Chiasson, illness was obviously a big part of that. Here in Ottawa, Chiasson is likely going to get a chance to play in the team’s top six forwards. He’ll battle Mark Stone for ice time and is certainly going to get a chance to show what he can do on the power play, where he scored six times for the Stars last season.
Chiasson is a big guy at 6’4 and he’s not afraid to go to the net and not surprisingly, that’s where he scores most of his goals.
He’s got a good shot and has a tendency to get under the skin of the opposition from time to time. He’s certainly excited to be here in Ottawa and will really have a chance to win fans over next season. As a restricted free agent entering the final year of his entry level deal, this is a big year for Chiasson personally too.
He’s not going to replace the production lost in the Jason Spezza deal but he, along with Alex Guptil and Nick Paul, will be important pieces for the Ottawa Senators next season and beyond.
