CBJ Depth Dive: Draft choice Carson Meyer fights slump with help of his mentors (2024)

The summer of 2017 was a hockey dream for Carson Meyer. The Powell, Ohio, native was coming off a strong freshman year at Miami University that had him fourth in overall points (10-16-26) and third in points per game (.81). Then in June, in the sixth round of the NHL Draft, the then 19-year-old heard his name called by his hometown team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“The achievement of being drafted to Columbus was one of the best moments of my life,” Meyer said. “But I don’t really think I knew how to handle it at the time. It was exciting, overwhelming. I came back to school on a high and, I don’t want to say I took my foot off the gas, but I wasn’t playing my game.”

In 21 games this season, Meyer has had four goals and three assists. He’s battled the pressure of being a known entity for opponents and struggled through the biggest slump of his playing life. He was a healthy scratch for the first time in his career in Miami’s Jan. 13 game against Omaha.

‌‌‌ “A sophom*ore slump is a real thing in college hockey,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “For Carson, this is something where he’s growing and maturing through it and I’m a big believer in the idea that you don’t grow unless you’re going through some hard times. I know he’s taken it head-on and not tiptoeing around it.”

But how does a player battle out a slump? Ask the former AAA Blue Jacket whom he looks to for help, and it’s a list of coaches who represent his hockey past, present and future.

The first name Meyer mentions is Ed Gingher. Gingher leads the AAA program in Columbus and coached Meyer there. He’s the coach who’s known the right winger the longest and has seen him go through different slumps through his years on the ice. Gingher saw Meyer over the holidays and will text or call him from time to time.

“The message is the same with most players,” Gingher said. “You have to trust your game and you have to get back to the basics. It’s sounds cliché-ish to say it that way, but with Carson, especially, that’s been his way out every time — get back to work.

“To me when he’s at his best he’s practicing like a prick, pardon my French. Are you practicing hard? Are you moving your feet? Are you hunting guys down on the backcheck and stripping guys of pucks?”

Gingher has reminded Meyer about getting to the place on the ice to make the play and not wait for the play to come to him. And he reminds the player that he’s done it before.

That is a similar message to the one Meyer hears from his current head coach, another point of support for the player. The two have spent a lot of time talking and reviewing video.

Historically, Blasi has watched Meyer capitalize as a player he describes as “opportunistic” and one whom “the puck just seems to follow around.” Now, it’s time for Meyer work harder on taking himself to the play, not vice versa.

“For his future and our team, (Meyer) needs to get to a level where his skating is helping him, and that’s a mindset that he has to work on to get to places,” Blasi said. “Now that he’s a guy that everybody knows is a scorer, guys are going to key in on him so he’s going to have to do things — little things — that are going to put him in that situation.”

Off the ice, Blasi works with Meyer, as he does with all his players, on working through bigger and bigger distractions. The RedHawks coach says players need to learn to stay focused on their game and development. After all, getting drafted by an NHL team can be a heady time for anyone.

So Blasi challenges his players like Meyer to learn to focus on where they are, right now, not on the teams that may have drafted them.

“Our biggest job is to diffuse those distractions. It’s difficult,” Blasi said. “For me it’s very important that we teach these kids to be in the moment and be where their feet are and focus on where they are now. They have to continue to work, they still have to continue to do the things they have to do to improve.”

And Meyer also has Jackets development coach Chris Clark, who, because of proximity, can stay in communication with Gingher in addition to everyone at Miami.

“Chris Clark has been beyond helpful,” Meyer said. “He said he went through a similar thing his sophom*ore year after getting drafted so that made me feel more comfortable. He keeps reminding me (the Jackets) believe in me and know what I’m capable of. It’s just a matter of getting back to working hard, showcase my talent a little bit.”

And while this sounds a bit like the old adage that “it takes a village,” the reality is that each of these voices is helping remind Meyer of something he already knows — that the path out of his slump lies within himself and his play.

If you talk to Meyer, he says he can feel the confidence starting to come. He got the message his coaches have sent. He knows he’s gotten out of these slumps before, and he believes he will do it again this year.

“When you go through this stuff it’s easy to point fingers and yet we know the answer is inside (the player),” Gingher said. “You’re the one that has to fix it. You can’t wait for a coach to fix it. Carson’s smart enough to know that and he knows he has to be better.

“But getting him back to what that better is for him got him to be an NHL draft pick, it got him to play for Team USA in the World Junior A challenge, it won him a USHL championship; the year he was with us he was the best midget player in the country in my opinion.

“There’s a lot for him to reflect on to realize it’s a blip on the radar. He’s going through a tough stretch. It’s going to happen. Just try to work your way out of it.”

Notes

• The Blue Jackets announced Monday they had traded defenseman John Ramage to Arizona for future considerations. In three years with Cleveland, Ramage played 220 regular-season games (14-47-61). This year, he had two goals and seven assists in 33 games with the Monsters.

• Defenseman Jacob Graves was called up to the Monsters on Dec. 15. In 24 ECHL games, the Barrie, Ontario, native has four assists, no goals, 21 PIMs and is a minus-10. He has yet to play a game with Cleveland.

• The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation announced that goaltender Elvis Merzlikins will be play for Latvia in a game against the Canadian Olympic team Feb. 4.

Prospects Week in Review

AHL

QMJHL

OHL

USHL

ECHL

NCAA

BCHL

SHL

Allsvenskan

Liiga

Mestis

KHL

MHL

NLA

— Reported from Columbus

Photo: Carson Meyer (Bridget Pollard/Miami University)