from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

There are 13 pay periods inside a National Hockey League season. When Alex Chiasson got off the plane in Edmonton back in September, he was just trying to get to one of them.

He came out west on a professional tryout — a PTO — the second year in a row that he had gone through the summer unsigned and hungry for work.

“Not the position you want to be as a player,” the 28-year-old Montrealer said in his second language, only a hint of an accent left after seven NHL seasons, a couple of years in the minors, and three seasons at Boston University. “But for me, I’ve never been allowed to sit back. I’ve always had to put in the work, and when you come in on a PTO there’s no guarantee. You can stay, or you can go.”

It took some time, but Chiasson earned a spot here. It seemed like his reward would be the one-year, $650,000 deal the Oilers bestowed upon him....

The real reward, as he drilled home his 14th goal of the season in a 4-1 win over Philadelphia Friday night, was a spot on the Oilers top line with a pair of top-10 NHL scorers, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

And those pay periods?

Average out McDavid’s $15 million in earnings this season over them and it’ll take just two weeks to record more cash than Chiasson will make all season long.

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