Former Red Wing Officially Hangs up the Skates

This afternoon, a Tweet from the NHL Players Association affirmed what his absence from an NHL roster already suggested: Former Detroit Red Wing Alex Chiasson is calling it a career, officially retiring after 651 career games over 11 seasons with seven different franchises.

Chiasson's time in Detroit wasn't long, playing just his last 20 games with the Red Wings in the 2022-23 season.  He attempted a comeback on a PTO with Detroit during training camp, but it didn't result in a contract.  Now, unsigned midway through the season, Chiasson has accepted that his NHL career has run its course.

Even back in training camp, Chiasson recognized that his time in the NHL was coming to an end.  "If we go back maybe a year from today, I wasn't sure where my career was at," he said in October. "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."

Though the final comeback attempt fell short, Chiasson enjoyed a career he can look back on with pride.  He hangs up his skates having scored 120 career goals and another 113 assists for 233 points.  More importantly, Chiasson won a Stanley Cup championship in the spring of 2018 with the Washington Capitals.  On behalf of THN Detroit, all the best to Chiasson in his retirement!

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