Alex Chiasson Jersey Card

Arguably the trade that sparked the rest of the summer's movements, the one that sent Jason Spezza to the Dallas Stars and Alex Chiasson and two prospects to the Ottawa Senators changed the dynamic of two divisions. Dallas now has a top-six that rivals that of the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild, perhaps with even more raw talent; the Sens are now in the late stages of their rebuild and ready to climb in the standings, steady in front of the net, with a fine top-3 on defense, and a force on the wings - they might need to solidify their #2 and #3 center positions to rival the Montréal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins in the Atlantic division, though.

I love what Chiasson brings to the Sens - at 6'3'', working on his already-acceptable foot speed, gifted and gritty, he will take a lot of pressure off Bobby Ryan and may become Ottawa's version of Milan Lucic, except with a brain. Hockey's Future even goes as far as saying:

Potential top-six playmaking winger, like a more talented version of Blake Wheeler.

That may be laying it on a bit thick, in my opinion, which you can read in my recent post about Wheeler here. But the fact remains that Chiasson has dominated at every level before the NHL, from Midget AAA to the USHL to the NCAA (Boston University Terriers), and showed All-Star form in his rookie season with the AHL's Texas Stars before getting called up to the NHL and never looking back in 2012-13.

He will be wearing #90 with the Sens, seeing as Milan Michalek already wears #9. I expect him to score 20 goals with some 60 points per year for a decade, and peak around 30 goals and 75 points in maybe three years, hitting one of those numbers 3 or 4 times (he is a better playmaker than shooter at this point, but with his frame, may end up with a dozen powerplay goals a year, which would add to his totals in that category).

And so I was already a fan prior to the trade, which means I was thrilled when this card came out of a pack of Upper Deck's 2013-14 Series 2 cards - it's #RM-AC of the Rookie Materials sub-set, featuring a black swatch from an event-worn jersey. It depicts him with the Stars' white (away) uniform, perhaps the best-looking one since the team moved from Minnesota: