Alex Chiasson has been a revelation since his recall. Before his first game was even complete Glen Gulutzan had him skating with Jamie Benn and Ray Whitney. In seven games Chiasson has six goals. He does exactly what the coaching staff asks of the forward group in the post-deadline era. His debut literally couldn’t have gone any better.
But, hopefully for him, the expectations don’t get out of hand. Chiasson is a fine player. He plays a responsible defensive game, supports teammates in transition, and uses his size well. He has made a little bit of a name for himself due to the hot goal scoring start he got off to. Unfortunately it isn’t remotely sustainable.
In seven games Chiasson is shooting a ridiculous 46.2%. Part of that shooting percentage can be attributed to where he takes his shots from. Below is a chart of all of Chiasson’s even strength shots:
Thanks to the Super Shot Search for the chart.
In his limited time he has shown the ability to get to the net as you can see. Just about all of Chiasson’s shots have been taken from within a foot of the net. Some of the credit for those goals has to go to Ray Whitney. Whenever they’ve been on the ice together Whitney has been able to find Chiasson’s tape near the net. But, if Chiasson isn’t crashing the net the passes don’t mean much.
The interesting thing about Chiasson’s shot locations is how few shots he has taken from distance. A pure scorer is going to throw the puck at the net as much as possible. Chiasson’s reluctance to shoot is worth watching going forward.
The close distances from which he is shooting are carrying his shooting percentage and his PDO. Chiasson is second in the league in PDO of all forwards who have appeared in at least five games. As time goes on that is going to even out. Luck, over time, always will.
When he stops scoring the Stars are going to have a typical young player with some extra doses of poise. He hasn’t been a particularly good possession player so far, but very few young players come up dominating possession. Like anyone riding a shooting percentage kick the adjustment isn’t going to be pretty.
Questions will come up about his future and everyone will try to answer “what’s wrong” with Chiasson. But try not to let those questions and speculation cloud your image of Chiasson. He is a very promising prospect with a bright future in Dallas. He isn’t as good of a scorer as he appears now, and he isn’t as bad of a scorer as he might look when the adjustment period comes. Young players take time to develop, and when Chiasson begins to scratch his ceiling the Stars are going to have a very good player on their hands.