Ryan Kesler Recognized For Performance in Ducks Opener

There were few bright spots in the Anaheim Ducks season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins as the Ducks fell 6-4 to begin their 2014-15 campaign, but newly acquired center Ryan Kesler made an immediate impact with his new team.

Thanks to his three-point (one goal, two assists) performance in his team debut on Thursday, Kesler was recognized as the top performer by a Michigan born player. MiHockey, a hockey magazine publication based in Farmington Hills, Mich., chose Kesler as their “Michi-gamer” for Oct. 10.

A little background information on the “Michi-gamer” feature according to MiHockey:

"Every morning, we pick one Michi-gamer from the previous night’s slate of games across all professional levels of hockey – one Michigan player who stood out above the rest."

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Kesler, a native of Livonia, Mich., spent two years (2000-02) with the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP), which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. He played college hockey for one season with Ohio State and was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft. He spent 10 seasons in Vancouver before being shipped in a trade to Anaheim this past offseason.

In 656 career NHL games, Kesler, 30, has 183 goals and 213 assists for 396 points.

Josh Paulisin is an editor for Pucks of a Feather. You can follow him on Twitter.