Megna follows brother in Anaheim
Jayson Megna knew exactly where his younger brother Jaycob went in the 2012 NHL draft.
“Second-to-last pick,” Jayson noted. “We were at home and he was waiting. He thought he might be selected and we were just checking the phone. Regardless of where you go in the NHL draft, it’s super awesome.”
That would have been the 210th selection, overall, by the Ducks. Jaycob, a defenseman, went on to play 43 games with the Ducks, signed with the San Jose Sharks as an unrestricted free agent in 2021, and has played in 115 NHL games. Only two other players taken in the seventh round that year have played more NHL games than Jaycob — Christian Djoos and Joakim Nystrom — and neither is in the NHL now.
As for Jayson, he went undrafted and signed with the Penguins as a free agent in 2012, played in Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Colorado — with multiple minor-league assignments — before the Ducks claimed him on waivers from the Avalanche on Tuesday. The 32-year-old forward is two years older than Jaycob.
It was a bit of memory-lane time on Friday after the brothers played against each other for the first time in the NHL in a 6-1 win by the Sharks over the Ducks at Honda Center.
“Lots of mini sticks in the basement,” Jayson said after the game. “Lots of holes in the wall from us. It was pretty fun to see him out there. He’s having a great year. I’m super proud of him and to be able to play against him, we’ll have those memories for a lifetime.”
Their parents came in from Florida to see the game in person. Not only was it a notable family event for the Megnas — serendipity, really — but you could call it a story of old-school perseverance exhibited by the brothers.
“I absolutely believe in him,” Jayson said. “When you have the size like he does and the work ethic he does. There’s nothing that was going to stop him from reaching
Today: the NHL. He put that work in.”
They made each other better along the way, playing on the same team in high school and for a season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and against each other in the USHL.
“Definitely — we push each other off the ice and push each other on the ice,” Jayson said. “I would be remiss to say I would be the player I am without him and I hope he would say the same about me.”
Also
The Ducks open a fourgame trip with games in Ottawa on Monday and Toronto on Tuesday . ... Goaltender Anthony Stolarz (lower-body injury) is not on the trip, and the Ducks recalled goaltender Lukas Dostal from San Diego . ... Forward Derek Grant, who was injured on Dec. 3 at Minnesota, is on the trip but did not practice Sunday in Ottawa, according to the Ducks. Grant has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury.