Oilers Re-Sign Alex Chiasson

The Oilers have re-signed Alex Chiasson to a two year deal. It’s valued at 2.15MM per year.

Alex Chiasson is coming off a career year that saw him score 22 goals (22-16-38). Chaisson had never hit 20 goals or 38 points prior to 2018-19, but was helped out a lot by some power play time and a 17.9% shooting percentage throughout the year. If the Oilers don’t make any big splashes in free agency (they’ve got like six dollars cap space right now), then it’s a fair bet that Chiasson will likely get a shot to get back in the top six at some point during the 2019-20 season.

DOLLARS AND SENSE

We’re now about an hour and a half into free agency, and it’s looking like every free agent that the Oilers had eyes on (Nyquist, Donskoi, even Valtteri Filppula) has found a new home. 22 goals isn’t anything to roll your eyes at, it was good for fourth in goals on last year’s club. History repeats itself, and the Oilers are buying high again here. Chiasson scored on nearly 18% of his shots in 2018-19, and (like Jordan Eberle six years ago) that’s going to be awfully difficult to replicate. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were the only forwards who averaged more power play time per game than Chiasson, so he’ll need to get some significant power play time in order to replicate last year’s numbers. Chiasson scored eight goals (8-7-15) on the PP.

I don’t think Chiasson getting two years is terrible, but he’s a very good candidate to regress a bit this year. He’s making 2.15MM a year. That’s not a huge deal, but the Oilers are hoping he can replicate his 22 goals again in 2019-20. Depending on how much power play time he’s given and where he slots in 5v5 (it will probably be mid-six for much of the year), he strikes me as a player who will be hard pressed to score 30 points in 2019-20.

Let’s hope he keeps firing them at 18%.