“Obviously, I went through quite a bit last year, and I decided that I wanted to give myself another shot and play,” said Alex Chiasson after this morning’s skate at Little Caesars Arena. “Obviously, really appreciated my time here in Detroit and in Grand Rapids.”
The 33-year-old joined the Red Wings—with whom he spent the 2022-23 season—for this year’s training camp on a Professional Try-Out contract. Chiasson knows he’s a long shot to crack the NHL roster, but he’s beaten long odds before. What he went through was hip surgery in January and a confrontation with the reality that his hockey career might be over. Now, he’s ready to make the most of his new lease on NHL life.
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“I was able to manage [the pain] for a while,” he said, when asked how long the hip had been nagging him. “It just got to a point where life outside the rink was just not great.”
“If we go back maybe a year from today, I wasn’t sure where my career was at,” Chiasson reflected. “Thought maybe that was it for me. Hockey was hard physically, but just life in general wasn’t much fun. So went through the process and ended up getting surgery in January, and here we are today. [I’m] grateful for the opportunity to be here, obviously worked really hard to come back. It’s not easy at 33 to put in the work and all that, but you can only do this for so long, and hopefully I can show what I can do.”
Last fall, Chiasson auditioned to earn a spot with the Boston Bruins on a PTO, but after being released from that contract on the first of October, he didn’t find a new home. His hip bothered him to the point that he couldn’t watch NHL hockey, let alone play it, but after undergoing surgery, he believed it was worthwhile to push for one last shot in pro hockey.
“There was a time in October, November where, to be quite honest, I didn’t really watch much hockey,” he explains. “Just removed myself a little bit from all of it. And then Christmas, it was the first time I got to be at home at Christmas for a while with my family and my parents. And then I got the surgery in New York, and everything went great, but after that, I realized the opportunity that I could have. Started watching hockey, started to rehab, and then got to a point where I was like, ‘okay, I’m putting in the work now. Let’s see this thing through.’ I’d say it’s been quite the process. My parents, my wife, everyone’s been great through this and just thankful for this opportunity.”
Of course, the Red Wings know all about major hip surgeries, having signed Patrick Kane last fall after his hip re-surfacing the prior June. Chiasson noted that he’s appreciated being able to chat with Kane about the process, while adding that watching Kane’s labor is a reminder of the work he will need to put in to complete his comeback.
“I think his was slightly different, but talked to him a couple weeks ago, and it sure sounds like he was dealing with some of the same stuff,” Chiasson said when asked about Kane. “It’s been nice just picking his brain for a couple of things. Obviously, he’s been through the rehab and dealt with some of the things that come with that…When you go back and play, you’re putting your body though a lot of stress, a lot of things you haven’t done in a while. It’s been nice to hear from him and seeing him every day, what he does, it shows how hard you gotta go to keep pushing forward after to make sure you stay on top of things.”
In response to the most fundamental question of all (So, how do you feel now?), Chiasson replied, “Feel pretty good. It’s been a blessing. Things have gone really well, but being back here and getting the opportunity to play tonight—I remember my last here. I wasn’t sure if that was going to be my last one.”
But of course, contracts aren’t handed out to achieve narrative catharsis, and, for Chiasson, it won’t be easy emerging from camp with an NHL roster spot. The good news is he’s familiar with the task before him. “I’ve been in this situation before,” said Chiasson this morning, then with a smile he added, “Been pretty good on PTOs so far in my career, so I know how that works.”
That’s not arrogance. In fact, he has an extended history of making good on the league’s most tenuous form of contract. Chiasson joined the Red Wings in November 2022 after his PTO with the Coyotes wasn’t enough to earn a contract but did attract the eyeballs he needed to get that contract elsewhere. He also made the Canucks in 2021-22 off a PTO at camp. Before that, he’d earned a contract with Edmonton out of 2018 training camp off a PTO and then a two-year extension the following summer. In fall 2017, Chiasson cracked the Washington Capitals out of camp after signing on a PTO and wound up with a Stanley Cup ring to show for it.
“I think this one’s a little bit different just because of all that I went through and the organization, Shawn Horcoff, to give me an opportunity to come to camp to show what I can do,” Chiasson added. “I’m still competing. You don’t lose that as an athlete…but I think just the mindset [after] all that I went through [is] I got nothing to lose here. Everything is a bonus for me. I thought maybe at one point last year, hockey was over, now I’m back at it again and feeling good.”
Tonight, against the Blackhawks, Chiasson will have his first chance to make the most of that bonus in live game action, and as a 33-year-old fresh off hip surgery on a PTO, he couldn’t ask for more.
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