It's been a tough stretch for the Ducks of late, but Ben Meyers looks to make an impact and take advantage of every opportunity the final stretch of the season gives him.
Ben Meyers (25) has been in Anaheim as a member of the Ducks for thirteen days now. He was traded from the Colorado Avalanche organization on the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline in exchange for a 2024 fifth-round pick. The dust has settled league-wide as teams have their rosters set for either a playoff push or to start building toward the 2024-25 season.
Trade: Ducks Acquire Forward Ben Meyers for a Draft Pick
“It’s been a whirlwind trying to get settled into everything,” Meyers said after team practice at Great Park Ice on Wednesday morning when asked about how he’s settling into the organization. “Everyone’s been great to me, so no complaints at all.”
Meyers cracked the lineup the night he was traded and has played in five of the team’s seven games since. He’s yet to find himself on the scoresheet while averaging just under 14 minutes per night in those five games.
The nightly lineup has shuffled significantly during Meyers’ short time in Anaheim. Between players like Mason McTavish sustaining injuries and others like Leo Carlsson returning from them, stability and consistency have been elusive. Meyers, the 5-foot-11 forward has played on every line and every position in the last two weeks.
“There are some minor differences,” Meyers said of the systems Head Coach Greg Cronin runs in Anaheim vs the ones he’d been playing in Colorado. “I’ve played most of these systems at some point.”
Before he arrived in Anaheim, Meyers had been called up and sent down between the AHL and NHL within the Colorado Avalanche organization several times since signing his ELC at the end of the 2021-22 season. He’s been productive at the AHL level, scoring 49 points in 62 career games. Translating that success has proven a code that’s yet to be cracked for the newest Duck.
“I’m just trying to hold onto pucks longer, use my skating to not only defend and help us be in the D-zone for less time but to spend more time in the O-zone,” Meyers stated when asked what he was looking to work on to keep his role in the NHL and improve his game.
Ben Meyers only has six goals in 58 career NHL games as he attempts to figure out the role to carve on an NHL roster so he can make an impact on a nightly basis. He’s a versatile forward with a high motor. The undrafted free agent thrives in small areas of the ice, he’s skilled and tenacious along the wall, in corners, and front of the net. He will fight for every inch of dangerous ice to get to a quality look or make himself available as a passing option. He's diligent and disruptive defensively without surrendering proper position and is quick to pounce on a loose puck to turn up ice.
Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek has stated when he was Assistant General Manager with the Red Wings, he and the organization was hoping to sign him following his senior season at the University of Minnesota and Meyers has remained on his radar ever since.
Passed over in three NHL drafts (2017. 2018, 2019), Ben Meyers has battled for roles and opportunities at every level and has found success. It wouldn’t be surprising to see that trend continue and to see him carve out a long career for himself at the NHL level.
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