Canucks Overseas
Sunday evening we let you know about the charity hockey game in Czechia in honour of the late Petr Klima who passed away on May 4th, an event that featured a cavalcade of Czech NHL’ers past and present, including current Canucks defenceman Filip Hronek.
Right next door in Slovakia over the weekend, another group of NHL stars was getting together to honour a living legend in those parts, Marian Hossa. Born in Stara Lubovna, he later moved to Trencin, the home town of Zdeno Chara and Marian Gaborik, and close to Ilava where his brother Marcel Hossa and Tomas Tatar were born.
These days some of the Slovakian players live part-time on the same hill in the same neighbourhood in Trencin.
Farewell games are popular in Europe and this one drew a who’s who of ex-Hossa teammates from all over the world.
His former captains, Jonathan Toews from the Chicago Blackhawks and Nick Lidstrom from his year with the Detroit Red Wings both dressed Friday night, as did Daniel Alfredsson from the Ottawa Senators.
The lone ex-Canucks player Jaroslav Halak, a Bratislava native who played with Vancouver for the 2021-’22 season, dressed in net. Halak is an unrestricted free agent after playing last season with the New York Rangers.
At It Again …
The old saying goes, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
The Alex Chiasson saying goes, “if at first you do succeed, try the same thing over and over again.”
The Boston Bruins announced Monday morning that they have signed the ex-Canucks forward to a Professional Try-Out (PTO) agreement. Chiasson turned successful PTO opportunities into contracts with the Washington Capitals, a team that went on to win a Stanley Cup with him in 2018, the Montreal Canadiens, and then the Canucks.
Last season he played in the minor leagues for the Detroit Red Wings and then was called up for 20 games starting in March.
Now the Bruins.
Chiasson was labelled a “power play specialist” and a “net front presence” when the Canucks tried him out and signed him in the fall of 2021. He ended up with 13 goals and 22 points in 67 games with Vancouver. He wasn’t in the future plans of the Canucks regime that took over midway through that season.
Chiasson was originally selected in the 2nd-round of the 2009 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars.
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