Prospect from Powell has eyes on NHL
The questions started surfacing five or six years ago, about the time Carson Meyer’s ability to play hockey separated him from others on the ice.
“People would ask what I was going to do after high school,” Meyer said. “I would say, ‘I’m going to play pro hockey.’ ”
There are two reasons that Meyer, now 19, didn’t go all the way and say, “I’m going to play in the NHL.”
First, it was a reach back then for any central Ohio kid — Meyer is from Powell — to proclaim he would to play in the world’s best league. This was before Dublin’s Connor Murphy stuck with Arizona and Columbus’ Jack Roslovic was a first-round draft pick by Winnipeg.
Second, although Meyer stood out among his peers, the forward he wasn’t deemed a world-class prospect.
Those issues no longer apply.
“I’ve always believed I could play in the NHL, but now it’s more believable to other people, too,” Meyer said. “You see (Dublin’s) Sean Kuraly, a guy you’re friends with, score an overtime gamewinner (for Boston last month) in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it just makes it seem that much more within reach.”
Meyer has been drafteligible for two years but hasn’t been selected, even after scoring 32 goals for the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League in the 2015-16 season. He is less likely to be skipped over this season after putting up 10 goals and 16 assists in 32 games as a freshman at Miami University. Only five undrafted freshmen playing Division I last season had a higher points-per-game average than Meyer’s 0.81.
The 5-foot-11, 185pound right wing said he has been contacted by eight NHL teams, including the Blue Jackets, who hosted him at development camp last summer. The Los Angeles Kings are scheduled to visit him this week in Oxford.
“Carson has always been a guy who has put up numbers, so we expected him to step right into a top-six role with us, even as a freshman,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “In that sense, he did not disappoint. But you see other things along the way. He had (mononucleosis) during the season, and that sits with you a while. He played a few games when he wasn’t all there, but he gutted it out.”
As for Meyer’s future, Blasi said, “There’s an NHL player inside of him. He can finish. He can play a 200-foot game.”
There is no guarantee Meyer will get drafted this year. But most NHL scouts expect him to go sometime after the fifth round on June 23-24 in Chicago.
Even going undrafted will not squelch Meyer’s dream. New Albany’s Kiefer Sherwood, 22, was never drafted, but he will have numerous suitors next spring when he finishes his junior season at Miami. He turned down several offers already so he could stay in college.
“I’m going on a fishing trip with the guys in our family way up north in Canada the week leading up to the draft,” Meyer said. “So maybe that’ll take my mind off it. But it’ll be hard not to pay attention. I want to hear my name, obviously, but no matter what happens at the draft, I have goals I want to achieve. I want to play in the NHL.”