Benjamin Coel Eaves (born March 27, 1982) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. He is currently the

strength and conditioning coach A strength and conditioning coach (also known as an S&C coach) is a physical performance professional who uses exercise prescription to improve the performance of competitive athletes or athletic teams. This is achieved through the combination of ...

for the

Cleveland Monsters The Cleveland Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). The team began play in 2007 as the Lake Erie Monsters and since 2015 has served as the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hock ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

(AHL) - where his father and former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) player

Mike Eaves Michael Gordon Eaves (born June 10, 1956) is an American former National Hockey League (NHL) player and the former head coach of the St. Olaf College men's hockey team and for his alma mater the University of Wisconsin, where he was part of two N ...

is head coach. His brother

Patrick Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

played over 600 games in the NHL.

Playing career

Eaves went to high school at

Shattuck-St. Mary's Shattuck-St. Mary's (also known as Shattuck-St. Mary's School, Shattuck, or simply SSM) is a Mixed-sex education, coeducational Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal-affiliated boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota, United States. Est ...

school in

Faribault, Minnesota Faribault ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately south of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highways ...

. Eaves was drafted 131st overall by the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

in the

2001 NHL Entry Draft __NOTOC__ The 2001 NHL Entry Draft was the 39th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 23 and 24, 2001 at the National Car Rental Center in Sunrise, Florida. As of 2022, the only remaining active players in the NHL from the 2001 draft class are M ...

. He spent four seasons at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

before turning pro in 2004. He signed an entry-level contract with the Penguins, but with the

2004–05 NHL season The 2004–05 NHL season was the National Hockey League's 88th season of operation. The entire 1,230-game schedule, that was set to begin in October, was officially canceled on February 16, 2005 due to an unresolved lockout that began on Septem ...

locked out and eventually cancelled, he split the season with the AHL's

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and are the AHL affiliates of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. They play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre ...

and the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

Wheeling Nailers The Wheeling Nailers are a professional ECHL ice hockey team based in Wheeling, West Virginia. They are the ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey Lea ...

. He missed majority of 2005–06 season and entire 2006–07 season recovering from knee injuries. In November 2007 he signed for the

Espoo Blues The Espoo Blues were an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They played in Espoo, Finland, at the Espoo Metro Areena. The club went bankrupt at the end of the 2015–16 Liiga season. History The club was established in February 1984 as Kiekko-Espoo ...

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

where he played rest of the season, although missing majority of it due to several injuries. He continued in the team for the following season. On 13 December 2008 he took a break due to injury, he made his comeback on 28 January 2009. During the SM-liiga playoffs 2009 Ben Eaves broke the record of Kari Jalonen (season 1980/81) and Hannes Hyvönen (2007/08) for the most points scored during the playoffs (21 points). Eaves managed to score 24 points (4 goals and 20 assists) in 13 games with the Espoo Blues. On July 21, 2009, Eaves signed a one-year,

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless of ...

with the

Nashville Predators The Nashville Predators (commonly referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and ha ...

. On November 2, 2009 Eaves left the Predators' AHL affiliate

Milwaukee Admirals The Milwaukee Admirals are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Panther Arena. They are affiliated with the NHL's Nashvil ...

and announced his retirement from hockey due to a lingering knee injury. In the following season, however, he came out of retirement and joined

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) are a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team won six league championships as a member of the Finnish SM-liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its ...

of Finnish SM-liiga in August 2010. In his return to Finland, Eaves successfully established himself amongst Jokerit's scoring forwards. He was selected as the MVP of the European trophy tournament of the 2011–12 season. In his third season with Jokerit, Eaves was again plagued by injury, suffering a concussion before briefly returning for the playoffs. In preparation for the 2013–14 season with Jokerit, Eaves suffered a relapse of concussion symptoms and on August 16, 2013, announced his retirement from professional hockey for a second time, moving on to be Assistant Director of Hockey and U18 Coach for the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets in Columbus, Ohio. In 2019, he joined the

of the

(AHL) - where his father is the head coach - as the

.Hockey staff - Cleveland Monsters.com
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Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

*
Ben Eaves's Player profile
a
Elite Prospects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaves, Ben 1982 births Living people American men's ice hockey centers Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey players Espoo Blues players Ice hockey people from Minneapolis Jokerit players Milwaukee Admirals players People from Faribault, Minnesota Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks Wheeling Nailers players Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans Sports coaches from Minneapolis NCAA men's ice hockey national champions