There are a lot of options here on the Tampa roster. But I digress.
Welcome back to "Who Is That Player?" Today we investigate that famous pillar of the Lightning dynasty,
Mitchell Chaffee.
Sporting no less than three pairs of double consonants, the 26 year old American has apparently played in 50 NHL games for Tampa already. And he's been productive -- his 8 points are something Miro Heiskanen could only dream of, for example. As Tampa's 7th most used forward he sits just outside of the Top 6, but is receiving regular power play time with 42 seconds per game.
So where did he come from? Well, the Wild organization evidently, where he was signed out of the NCAA after going undrafted. At UMass-Amherst he had several productive seasons and racked up multiple awards including New England All-Star, Hockey East First Team All-Star, Hockey East Scoring Champion, Herb Gallagher Award (New England’s Best Forward) and CCM/AHCA First Team All-American.
In pro hockey the right winger has morphed into more of a hard-nosed gritty forechecker as one of Tampa's top hitters. Coach Jon Cooper has become a fan of Chaffee's industrious style:
You look at all those little nuances that players have, and he’s got them. And those are the types of things we love around here, and we’ve had success around here with players that can play that way. And he’s done a great job with the minutes he’s been given. You look for the kid’s compete and he had it. The kid’s got some courage. He’s not afraid to go to those areas. You’ll always find him net front. He’s always going to those corners shoulder first. He’s not backing up going stick first. He gets in there. ... He wins puck battles. And if he doesn’t, the guy that beats him has gone through one heck of a war.
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Are the Stars ready to go to war against Mitchell Chaffee and the Lightning? Almost certainly not- who would be?
This has been, "Who Is That Player?"
