Eviston is in his first season with the East Coast Hockey Leagues Quad City Mallards. In 38 games this season with Quad City Eviston has (7-goals-13-assists-20-points).
Eviston signed a try-out contract with the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) Idaho Steelheads, attended the Steelheads Training Camp never played a game was released on October 13th 2014. Eviston then an unrestricted free agent signed with Idaho on October 22nd 2014 before being traded to Quad City on the same day.
Eviston didnt play hockey last season, played parts of one season in Vernon (2012-13). The Vipers acquired the playing rights of Eviston from the Victoria Grizzlies on Seprember 19th 2011 for Jarryd Ten Vaanholt. Eviston currently playing with the WHL Portland Winterhawks at the time of the trade, joined-signed with the Vipers on August 3rd 2012. Eviston played in 34 regular season games with Vernon before being sent home. The Vipers ended up trading Eviston to Victoria on January 10th 2013 for future considerations.
Pearce Eviston's Player Profile:
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=19842
This was in the Quad City Newspaper:
Mallards' Eviston's strong start no fluke
November 13, 2014
By Bobby Metcalf
After a rough and rocky past, the future is still bright for Pearce Eviston.
The Quad-City Mallards center is off to a great start in his rookie season, leading the team and ranking eighth in the ECHL with eight assists. Given his background, this start isn't surprising, but it is still welcome after the road Eviston had to travel to get here.
Playing in the British Columbia Hockey League, Eviston was ranked as the 153rd-best skating prospect in North America by NHL Central Scouting midway through the 2010-11 season, but repeated hip injuries dropped him down to 169th — behind fellow Mallards Todd Fiddler and Logan Nelson — and he wasn't selected in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Eviston gutted through those injuries but after several periods where his hip would get pitch-black and he couldn't skate, he decided to have surgery in 2012.
Eviston played that next season but admitted he wasn't the same player following the surgery and decided to take the 2013-14 season off to evaluate his future.
"I found myself in pretty dark times for me, hockey-wise," Eviston said. "I thought about quitting, not playing, that had to do with the year off too, just see if there’s anything else I wanted to do."
Out of the darkness came a much stronger person, ready for the challenges of continuing his hockey career."You just can’t give up," he said. "As tough as it may seem at the time, there’s always going to be
better days in the future. There’s peaks and valleys and you’ve got to live for the peaks and battle through the valleys and I think I learned that. It was tough, but it makes you a stronger player for sure."
After the year off, Eviston skated in the Idaho Steelheads camp this preseason, but was released before the season began. It was then that he received a phone call from Quad-City coach and general manager Terry Ruskowski, telling him that the Mallards had traded for his rights and that the team wanted him to come to the Quad-Cities immediately.
Eviston hopped on a plane and has quickly settled into his new surroundings. Flanked on the top line by Jeff Lee and Joe Perry, Eviston, who wears No. 11, has quickly produced, leading to comparisons to the last player to wear that number, Thomas Frazee, who was the Mallards' leading goal-scorer before departing for Fort Wayne in the offseason.
"It’s uncanny because Frazee wore No. 11, he’s the same height almost, he’s the same type of player," Ruskowski said. "He skates very well, he moves the puck very well."
Lee admitted he was disappointed Frazee decided not to return, but with the Mallards' top point-man from last year again at the top of the charts this year, the transition has been a fairly seamless one.
"I’m always nervous about production at the start of every year so it doesn’t matter who I’m playing with, even if Frazee had come back, I would have been nervous that we weren’t going to click right away again," Lee said. "But Pearce has fit the bill well, he sees the puck really well and he’s a really nice addition for our guys like me and Perry."
If there's one thing Eviston needs to work on, it's shooting the puck. With no goals and just 11 shots on goal, Ruskowski has made it a point to tell his rookie to shoot more, because if nothing else, it will force teams to respect his aggressiveness. Eviston is eager to take whatever advice Ruskowski — who captained four different teams in his 16-year career in the World Hockey Association and NHL — is willing to give him.
"I’ve been given every opportunity to succeed here and Terry’s been really good with me," Eviston said. "He’s showing me the ropes and I’m always learning from him. A guy with as much experience as he has, you always want to pick his brain and learn as much as you can and he’s helped me a lot with that."
There are no questions of "what if?" from Eviston. The strong start is simply a validation of the skills he exhibited before the injuries set him back. His focus now is to continue to develop those skills and start opening eyes once again.
"I knew I could play," Eviston said. "It’s just been the perfect start to the season and you want to just keep building from here."
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