Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a profile of Red Wings pro try-out Alex Chiasson, who is attempting to earn a contract after not playing during yesterday’s regular season due to hip surgery:
“I did hip surgery in January,” Chiasson explained. “So if we go back maybe a year from today, I wasn’t sure where my career was at. I thought maybe that was it for me.”
The surgery was done as much for Chiasson’s peace of mind as it was with any notion of getting him back on the ice.
“Hockey was hard physically, but just life in general,” Chiasson said. “Life at home wasn’t much fun.”
Assuring he’d be healthy enough to play with his kids and do other vital aspects of life beyond hockey was his motivation to go under the knife. The, once the surgery was done and he was on the road to recovery, that was when notions of being back on the ice began to dance in Chiasson’s head.
He’s going for it the hard way. Chiasson is attending Red Wings camp on a professional tryout offer (PTO). About 20% of PTO attendees earn a contract, so the odds are stacked against Chiasson. Yet he feels like the luckiest guy in camp.
“Pretty grateful for the opportunity to be here,” Chiasson said. “I’ve 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 and what I’m capable of still doing and help the organization in any way I can.”