{{short description|American ice hockey player}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{for-multi|the British basketball player|Ben Eaves (basketball)|the pioneer doctor|Benjamin Franklin Eaves}} {{Infobox ice hockey player | image =Ben_Eaves_Jokerit.jpg | image_size = | position = Center | shoots = | height_ft = 5 | height_in = 8 | weight_lb = 179 | played_for = WBS Penguins<br>Espoo Blues<br>Milwaukee Admirals<br>Jokerit | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1982|3|27}} | birth_place = Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. | draft = 131st overall | draft_year = 2001 | draft_team = Pittsburgh Penguins | career_start = 2004 | career_end = 2013 }} '''Benjamin Coel Eaves''' (born March 27, 1982) is an American former professional ice hockey center. He is currently the strength and conditioning coach for the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL) - where his father and former National Hockey League (NHL) player Mike Eaves is head coach. His brother Patrick played over 600 games in the NHL.
== Playing career == Eaves went to high school at Shattuck-St. Mary's school in Faribault, Minnesota. Eaves was drafted 131st overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2001 NHL entry draft. He spent four seasons at Boston College before turning pro in 2004. He signed an entry-level contract with the Penguins, but with the 2004–05 NHL season locked out and eventually cancelled, he split the season with the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers. 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 in SM-liiga 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 with the Nashville Predators.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://predators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=450995|title=Preds ink Free Agent forward Ben Eaves | publisher=Nashville Predators | date = 2009-07-20 | accessdate = 2009-07-23}}</ref> On November 2, 2009, Eaves left the Predators' AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals and announced his retirement from hockey due to a lingering knee injury.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://community.sportsbubbler.com/blogs/admirals_short_shifts/archive/2009/11/02/ben-eaves-retires.aspx | title = Ben Eaves Retires | publisher = sportsbubbler.com | date = 2009-11-02 | accessdate = 2010-11-02 | archive-date = May 24, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200524185937/http://http//community.sportsbubbler.com/blogs/admirals_short_shifts/archive/2009/11/02/ben-eaves-retires.aspx/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>
In the following season, however, he came out of retirement and joined Jokerit 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.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.jokerit.com/uutiset/?nid=2490 | title = Ben Eaves to end his career as a player | publisher = Jokerit | date = 2013-08-16 | accessdate = 2013-08-16 | archive-date = 2019-12-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191214133853/http://www.jokerit.com/uutiset/?nid=2490 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
In 2019, he joined the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL) - where his father is the head coach - as the strength and conditioning coach.<ref>[http://www.clevelandmonsters.com/team/hockey-staff Hockey staff - Cleveland Monsters.com]</ref>
==Career statistics== ===Regular season and playoffs=== {| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="text-align:center; width:60em" |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Regular season ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Playoffs |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! Season ! Team ! League ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM |- | 1999–2000 | Shattuck–Saint Mary's | HS Prep | 57 | 47 | 71 | 118 | | — | — | — | — | — |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2000–01 | Boston College | HE | 41 | 13 | 26 | 39 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — |- | 2001–02 | Boston College | HE | 23 | 13 | 26 | 39 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2002–03 | Boston College | HE | 36 | 18 | 39 | 57 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — |- | 2003–04 | Boston College | HE | 26 | 9 | 25 | 34 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2004–05 | Wilkes–Barre/Scranton Penguins | AHL | 43 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |- | 2004–05 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2005–06 | Wilkes–Barre/Scranton Penguins | AHL | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — |- | 2007–08 | Blues | SM-liiga | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 8 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2008–09 | Blues | SM-liiga | 22 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 4 | 20 | 24 | 6 |- | 2009–10 | Milwaukee Admirals | AHL | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2010–11 | Jokerit | SM-liiga | 44 | 9 | 17 | 26 | 30 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 |- | 2011–12 | Jokerit | SM-liiga | 44 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2012–13 | Jokerit | SM-liiga | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" | AHL totals ! 55 ! 6 ! 10 ! 16 ! 16 ! 7 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" | SM-liiga totals ! 130 ! 30 ! 58 ! 88 ! 78 ! 42 ! 13 ! 33 ! 46 ! 28 |}
===International=== {| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" ID="Table3" style="text-align:center; width:40em" |- ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! Year ! Team ! Event ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM |- | 2000 | United States | WJC18 | 6 || 1 || 3 || 4 || 0 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2002 | United States | WJC | 6 || 1 || 4 || 5 || 2 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" | Junior totals ! 12 ! 2 ! 7 ! 9 ! 2 |}
==Awards and honors== {| class="wikitable" ! Award ! Year |- | All-Hockey East Rookie Team | 2000–01 |- | All-Hockey East Second Team | 2001–02 |- | AHCA East Second-Team All-American | 2001–02 |- | All-Hockey East First Team | 2002–03 |- | AHCA East First-Team All-American | 2002–03 |- |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Ice hockey stats}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ach}} {{succession box | before = Darren Haydar| title = Hockey East Player of the Year<br><small>(Shared With Mike Ayers)</small> | years = 2002–03| after = Steve Saviano}} {{succession box | before = Colin Hemingway| title = Hockey East Three-Stars Award<br><small>(Shared With Joe Exter)</small>| years = 2002–03| after = Keni Gibson}} {{succession box | before = Darren Haydar| title = Hockey East Scoring Champion| years = 2002–03| after = Ryan Shannon / Tony Voce}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaves, Ben}} Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:American men's ice hockey centers Category:Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey players Category:Espoo Blues players Category:Ice hockey people from Minneapolis Category:Jokerit players Category:Milwaukee Admirals players Category:Sportspeople from Faribault, Minnesota Category:Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks Category:Wheeling Nailers players Category:Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players Category:AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans Category:Sports coaches from Minneapolis Category:NCAA men's ice hockey national champions Category:American expatriate ice hockey players in Finland