Mike Meeker

Mike Meeker, Pittsburgh Penguin

The Penguins’ penchant for trading away draft choices in the late 70s hit its nadir in 1978, when the team was left with only three picks. To make matters worse for the franchise, those three picks ended up being busts, playing in only a total of five NHL games.

Mike Meeker accounted for four of them. Things looked promising enough for the nephew of Maple Leafs legend Howie Meeker, the 1947 winner of the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year.

The Penguins drafted Meeker following an impressive 69-point junior year with the OHL's Peterborough Petes. Mike took home his own Rookie award in his first year of pro, when the right winger scored 65 points for the Binghamton Dusters of the American Hockey League.

That season, Meeker was called up to the Penguins for his four career NHL games, going pointless in them and earning five penalty minutes in a fight with the Flyers’ Rick MacLeish in his first game.

By early November of the next season, however, Meeker was put on the shelf for the remainder of the year with chronic back problems. That was it for Meeker in the NHL. He surfaced in Sweden for two years, scoring 52 points in 37 games for Karlskrona AIK.

This article details Meeker’s career in aquaculture in northern Ontario after his playing days came to an end.