Photo credit: Elsa

Jason Chimera had a pretty good year by any standard. He set a new personal scoring record, became an important depth player for the team, and generally used his speed to make opposing players look silly whenever he was on the ice. Though we’d rather see Chimera still playing hockey than throwing out pitches at Orioles games, we couldn’t have asked anything more from the speedy winger this season.

Cap Hit for 2011-12: $1.875 M. Chimera is signed with the Capitals through 2013-14, and will be UFA following the expiration of that contract.

Milestones: Hit twenty goals for the first time in his career.

Best Moment: Smoking Zdeno Chara for this goal in the Boston series.

Things We Said About Jason Chimera: “Wow, he’s fast.” “Wow, he’s really fast.”

Alignment: Lawful Evil

First Irrelevant Google Images Result:

Media Consensus: First part of the year: “Did you know that Jason Chimera has scored more goals than Ovechkin?” Last part of the year: “Jason Chimera is insanely useful and we like him.”

Alternate Universe Superhero Identity: Ice Cheetah

Spirit Animal: A chimera.

Team Role: Speed, grit, and depth scoring.

Execution of that Role: Jason Chimera became one of the heroes of an up-and-down season, blowing away any expectations we had of him previously. He had his best scoring season to date, and in his own words, has learned to use his speed as a tool, instead of just blazing from Point A to Point B.

Postseason Performance: Chimera scored four goals in the playoffs, three of them against the New York Rangers, cementing his status as Henrik Lundqvist’s worst nightmare. He was given a great deal of responsibility and was a key part of the lineup for much of the postseason. We’re guessing Matt Bradley is pleased.

Beard Rating:

Chimera grew an exceptionally strange, reddish chin-beard this year, which we are missing already. Eight out of ten.

Likeliness to Return: Seven out of ten. Chimera is signed through next year, but his stock is unusually high right now with his career performance this season. Possible trade bait.

Usefulness in a Post-Apocalyptic Setting: Six out of ten. Chimera’s main skill would be considerably neutralized by being on solid ground, not on the ice, unless the apocalypse in question was huge and ridiculous weather disaster causing a new ice age, in which case Chimera is your guy.

Other: Having cute kids is an automatic stat boost.

Photo credit: David S.

Overall Year-End Rating: Nine Good Sashas.