A native of Sanbornville, N.H., and a product of the Rochester, N.H., youth program, Freddy Meyer played at Cardigan Mountain School, the U.S. NTDP then Boston University before embarking on a pro career. A first-team All-American defenseman at BU in 2003, he played almost 300 NHL games for the Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes, New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers. Meyer was an assistant coach for the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League for two seasons and currently is head coach of the East Coast Wizards Junior A team in the EHL as well as a coach for the Boston Junior Eagles. He owns Dream Big HockeyStars.
Billy Jaffe: In youth hockey, before you went to the U.S. program, who had the biggest impact on your career and why, besides Mom and Dad?
Freddy Meyer: My experience at Cardigan Mountain, being a boarding school … we had a rink on campus, the ability to play street hockey all fall, the ability to skate as much as you want. At the time, the head coach was Andrew Noel. He was extremely passionate, did a great job preparing us physically and mentally to take the next step. I think me coming out of that program to the national program set me up for success based on the fundamentals I learned on and off the ice at Cardigan.
Jaffe: You get a pro opportunity after a great college career. You’re an undersized defenseman — there’s no way around it — your size is your size. How did that impact you physically and emotionally and did that give you a bit of a chip on your shoulder in a good way, knowing that you would have to do things differently to make it?
Meyer: Obviously, for whatever reason, being undersized, I’ve always played with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, even at the national program. I continued that at BU. I didn’t get drafted. A lot of the guys I played with at the national program were getting drafted high. At that time, the NHL was a little different. It was a little more of a big man’s game and less of a speed game because of the rules. Going through that experience, not having the opportunity to get drafted and being undercut, in a way, fueled off-ice workouts and stepping up the competitiveness on the ice.
Jaffe: What is your takeaway from your NHL career, which was well over 200 games?
Meyer: I always say to little kids that you need to prepare for the opportunity, so that when the opportunity presents itself, you are able to essentially take the ball and run with it. I always look at myself as a details type guy on and off the ice, always trying to do the little things, being very coachable, being able to take information, process it, so when that opportunity came, I was ready for it.
Jaffe: Who was the best professional coach — American League or NHL — who you ended up playing for?
Meyer: Technically, I would say Ken Hitchcock, in terms of his preparation, his mind for the game, his ability to pre-scout and prepare, was probably at the top. Overall, I had Johnny Stevens in the minors my first couple of years, then for a few months with the Flyers in the NHL before I got traded to Long Island. Johnny and I still have a great relationship …. Extremely happy for the job he’s doing in L.A. He’s obviously extremely prepared, sociable and understand the game, and kind of offers the total package for me.
Jaffe: You’re still coaching, just not at the pro level. What are things you are doing in your hockey-related businesses all the time?
Meyer: My "full-time" job is I coach a U-20 junior team for the East Coast Wizards. So I’m working with athletes who are playing Tier 3 junior hockey and are looking to play mostly D-3 (college) hockey. D-3 hockey these days is extremely competitive and it’s really hard to play.
Personally, I own and run Dream Big HockeyStars, which includes camps, clinics, private lessons, game analysis. I joke a little bit with myself, but as a player, you’d spend a couple hours at a rink. Now as a coach and as a business owner, I spend eight to 10 hours a day at the rink and seven to eight hours a day on the ice. For me, I love being on the ice, I love helping kids develop, I love working with all ages and abilities. It’s been a lot of fun. Being done playing, this has been a great way to stay in the game and help out the next generation.
Jaffe: Now that you’ve seen youth hockey up close at all levels, from 6 to 20 years old, what is the state of youth hockey in Massachusetts?
Meyer: I think youth hockey in general goes up and down. It’s an expensive sport. You don’t get all the best athletes to play hockey because of the cost. Families have to be committed to it, but I see kids that are just learning to skate to kids in U-20 junior hockey. I think the talent is still out there. I think the product is slightly watered down because there are so many options for kids on youth teams and different select programs. Back in the day everyone played town hockey, then select hockey started to develop slowly and there were only 10 to 12 options. Now there are 200 options. Each team has a couple of good players, versus the talent pool being a little more compacted and all the best players playing against each other. There are still talented kids out there and kids who have passion for the game. Massachusetts overall has a pretty strong product if you look at it throughout the age groups and how teams are ranking nationally.
Jaffe: What is something you would tell kids to do more than any other thing to help them to train as we start to enter the offseason?
Meyer: If you’re not shooting pucks and stickhandling, using some type of stickhandling ball three to four times a week, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Those are two skills that you don’t need ice, you don’t need skates. You need a stick, you need some pucks or a ball, you need a net. Nowadays, there’s not enough kids getting outside working on some basic skills.
If you want to get better, you need to spend some time at it. And fun time. Not work time with private coaches and private instructors, but time out in your driveway or basement or sport court or wherever you can stickhandle a ball. You can mess around. Can you juggle a ball? Can you juggle a tennis ball? Can you juggle it a little bit and knock it out of the air like a baseball swing? I think all those hand-eye coordinations can be developed at home for cheap money. It’s just time and it should be a fun environment for kids to learn and develop.
