Thanks to the over 80 of you who voted in our poll! We combined your votes and the writers’ votes and our Top 25 Under 25 continues today:
#4: Alexandre Texier
Voting
4th out of 34 eligible players
Writers’ Vote: 4th
Readers’ Vote: 4th
Highest Placement: 1st (1 vote)
Most Common Placement: 4th (48 votes)
Biography
Birthdate: September 13, 1999
Birthplace: Grenoble, France
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 194 lbs
Position: Center/Left Wing
Acquired: Drafted #45 overall, 2nd round 2017
2018-19 Season
Alexandre Texier played in three different professional leagues last year as a 19-year-old and played pretty darn well in every one of them. Texier began 2018-19 with KalPa Kuopio in Finnish’s Liiga, where he scored 41 points (14 goals) in 55 games. Just 48 hours after their season ended, Texier—who signed his three-year entry level contract in 2018—made the move to North America, where he headed to the Cleveland Monsters.
Texier played seven games in the AHL, notching five goals and two assists after going pointless in his Monsters debut. His excellence on the farm earned him a call-up to Columbus, where he made his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets in New York on April 5. The next night in Ottawa, he scored his first career NHL goal and finished +3 on the night.
You’d be forgiven for thinking a 19-year-old with exactly two games of NHL experience wouldn’t see a ton of playoff time. Instead, Texier played all four games of the Tampa Bay series, seeing his ice time steadily increase. He picked up an assist in Game 3 and scored the opening goal of Game 4, blowing the roof off of Nationwide Arena:
Texier played four games of the Boston series as the Bruins made life tough for and eventually eliminated the Blue Jackets. The Frenchman’s role grew smaller as the series progressed and he struggled to perform against the stronger Bruins.
2019-20 Forecast
Considering the club liked him enough to call him up from Cleveland and throw him in the deep end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Texier will likely start the year in Columbus. You’d like to see him with the skill line of Alexander Wennberg and Oliver Bjorkstrand, though he got a taste of life with pretty much everyone as John Tortorella blended all the lines against Boston. He’s shown he’s got the skill and mindset to compete against some of the best in the NHL. Now it’s up to him to make the next step in his first real season as an NHLer (and a rookie, for that matter). With a full summer of training and a couple of camps, 2019-20 could be Texier’s time to shine.