ANAHEIM – Derek Grant doesn’t have a contract for next season, but that is just what comes to be for him. If he did, that would be the surprise.

His nomadic NHL career has been about competing for a spot – perhaps one of the last on a roster – and trying to impress the coaches and front office enough for them to keep him around. When it comes to this 2017-18 season, the Ducks have found plenty of reasons to do so.

Other years have seen Grant get assignments back to the minor leagues or be put on waivers and claimed off them. Not this season. At 27, the Abbotsford, B.C. native has been with the Ducks all season, and has become a valuable asset to them.

“It’s been good,” Grant said Monday. “I think it’s been a confidence-building season for me. I came into camp this year with the mindset that I was going to be here. Get an opportunity early on and I tried to earn that opportunity.

“Kind of had ups and downs along the way, I guess. But it’s been a big learning experience for me, this year. I think I’ve taken my game to the next step and hopefully prove to a lot of people that I can play here and make a difference.”

The Ducks signed Grant to a one-year deal worth $650,000 as added organizational depth at center, knowing that Ryan Kesler would miss the first half of the season. Dennis Rasmussen was also brought in and the two would compete for the fourth-line job with Antoine Vermette moved up in the lineup.

Grant would be needed more than anyone would imagine. A fractured cheekbone that Ryan Getzlaf suffered on Oct. 29 would put the top-line center out for five weeks. With their top two pivots sidelined long term, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle turned to Grant as a fill-in.

Asking a player with no goals and seven points in 86 NHL games with four prior teams to center the team’s main scoring line seemed like a Herculean task. Impossible, perhaps. All it did was bring out the competitor in him.

Grant celebrated the first two goals of his career on Oct. 20 against Montreal and did about as well as a journeyman forward could do in a prime role. Two assists in Sunday’s win over Chicago now gives him eight goals and 12 assists overall – numbers the Ducks never counted on.

Carlyle said Grant has exceeded all expectations and that “it’s hard to poke any holes” in anything that he has done.

“He’s a guy that’s come in and played in a checking role,” he said. “Played a fourth-line role. We’ve moved him up in the lineup, in offensive roles. … You got to take your hat off to a guy like Granter for what he’s accomplished and where he started. The respect he’s earned not only from the coaching staff and management but from his teammates.”

Used to always being in competition for a job, Grant had to work to get back into a lineup that got healthy when Getzlaf and Kesler returned. The Ducks acquired Adam Henrique to be their third-line center and Vermette had settled onto the fourth line.

Despite being a healthy scratch 13 times over a six-week stretch, Grant is nudging the more experienced Vermette out with his play of late. He has been just as strong as faceoff ace Vermette in the circle, and Carlyle likes his 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame.

In baseball, players are sometimes referred to as “4A” – where they’re too good for the minor leagues but not good enough to stick at big-league level. Grant seemed to fall into that category, but Carlyle said there’s a reason he got shots with Calgary, Buffalo and Nashville after coming up with Ottawa.

“Their organizations felt that he was worthy of an opportunity,” Carlyle said. “The one thing that surprises you is he doesn’t appear to be that big a man until you go stand beside him. He’s a much bigger-bodied guy. He’s big, strong center iceman.

“You see in his faceoffs now are starting to become very dominant and we’ve used him in some key defensive zone situations. All those things are things that are expanding his role and his area of trust with the coaching staff.”

Grant has operated on one-year deals for three years running. Whether the Ducks see fit to bringing him back is up to them and he said “you never really know which direction teams go.” But he has made his case for a contract next season, with them or another team.

“Being in five different organizations in the last four seasons, it’s obviously a good learning experience,” Grant said. “You get to play with a lot of great players and learn from a lot of good veterans around the league. I’ve tried to take a little bit from each place I’ve been. Build my game around that.

“Just try to come to the rink every day and get better. I think so far this year, I’ve taken some big steps. I look to keep improving.”