Ben Simon

Benjamin Clarke Simon ( born June 14, 1978 in Shaker Heights, Ohio ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player and current coach.

Career

Already in his time at the high school won Simon with the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships, the high school championship of the State of Ohio, his first title and was one of the best players of his team, the Shaker Heights High School. In three seasons, the Center scored 251 points in 74 games before finally moving to the Cleveland Junior Barons in the North American Junior Hockey League, where he was elected to the First All -Star team and received the award of Rookie of the Year.

As of 1996, Simon studied at the University of Notre Dame and was a member of the ice hockey team that played in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association game in a league of operation of the NCAA. In addition, the attacker with the U.S. team Junior Vice World Champion at the Junior World Championship 1997 in Switzerland was. After the season, Simon was finally selected at the NHL Entry Draft in 1997 by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fifth round at 110th place.

However, the Americans finished his studies first, before 2000 his first professional contract with the Atlanta Thrashers signed, in the meantime had acquired his rights from the Blackhawks. Simon played first in the farm team, the Orlando Solar Bears of the International Hockey League, where he won the Turner Cup in his first season. After the IHL had to stop the operation of gambling, changed a lot of the team to the Chicago Wolves in the American Hockey League and won in the 2001/ 02 season, the championship again, which is awarded the Calder Cup. In addition, Simon played his first six games in the National Hockey League for the Atlanta Thrashers. The next year he came up with ten NHL games, in which the center forward was able to record an assist. The majority of game time spent Simon again in the AHL and eventually signed a contract in the summer of 2003 as a free agent with the Nashville Predators, who initially put him with the Milwaukee Admirals. In December, the attacker was transferred together with Tomáš Klouček in exchange for Simon Gamache and Kirill Safronov back to his old team to Atlanta. There he spent the remainder of the season in the NHL to hit three goals in 52 games. In the season 2004/ 05, however, Simon was playing in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves and reached the play-off final. In the summer of 2005, the Columbus Blue Jackets U.S. Americans took under contract, but which again mainly the Syracuse Crunch and only 13 times came into the NHL in the farm team for use. 2006/ 07 Simon played first in Syracuse and moved during the season on the Grand Rapids Griffins. The 2007/ 08 spent the links Sagittarius completely at the Springfield Falcons.

For the 2008/09 season, Simon decided a move to Europe, where he signed a year contract with the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Here hit the center with Brad Tapper and Norm Maracle on former teammates from the IHL and AHL, who campaigned for his commitment at the Roosters. After strong start, Simon's services were unkonstanter so that he did not receive a new contract offer.

In November 2009, Simon returned to North America and signed a contract with the Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL. After a strong performance with 13 points from 18 games, he was taken two months later, on loan from the Toronto Marlies under contract. There, however, he failed to build on these achievements and Simon returned to the end of the season back to the Wings to strengthen the team in the playoffs. In July 2010 he was engaged as player-coach of the Sheffield Steelers of the Elite Ice Hockey League. Since August 2011 he has worked as an assistant coach with the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League.

Awards and achievements

Career Stats

( Key to Career statistics: Sp or GP = Games Played, T or G = goals scored, V or A = achieved assists; Pts or Pts = scored points scorer, SM or PIM = received penalty minutes, / - = Plus / Minus balance sheet; PP = scored majority gates; SH = scored shorthanded goals, GW = achieved victory gates; Play-downs/Relegation 1 )