Sam Steel

Sam Steel (born February 3, 1998) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who currently plays for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Steel was selected 30th overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft by the Anaheim Ducks, and formerly played for the Minnesota Wild.

Steel first played junior hockey as a youth in his hometown of Sherwood Park, Alberta. While playing for and captaining the Sherwood Park AAA Flyers, Steel was selected with the second overall pick in the 2013 Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam draft by the Regina Pats. On August 28, 2013, he signed a standard player contract with the Pats. After appearing with the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), Steel completed the 2013–14 season by making his WHL debut with the Regina Pats, featuring in five games.

After the completion of his second full major junior season with Regina in 2015–16, Steel was selected in the same position he was ranked by the NHL Central Scouting, as the final pick of the first round (30th overall) of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft by the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks previously traded goaltender Frederik Andersen to the Toronto Maple Leafs to obtain the selection used to select Steel. On December 21, 2016, Steel signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Anaheim.

After an impressive 2016–17 season in which he led the WHL in scoring, Steel was awarded the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as WHL Player of the Year.

In his final season with the Pats, as a member of the 2018 Memorial Cup host team, and despite a 1-2 round robin record, Steel led the hosts to the final, ultimately losing the national championship game 0-3 to Acadie-Bathurst Titan. While not on the championship winning team, and a six-week break between WHL playoff opening round loss to WHL Champion Swift Current Broncos Steel was awarded the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as Tournament MVP, and Ed Chynoweth Trophy as Leading Scorer (2 goals, 11 assists). This followed winning the Gold for Team Canada in Buffalo, New York at the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

Steel joined the Ducks for their 2018–19 season, making his NHL debut on October 3 in a game against the San Jose Sharks. He recorded his first career NHL goal in a 4–2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on October 21. Steel recorded his first career NHL hat-trick in a 5–4 win over the Vancouver Canucks on March 26, 2019, becoming the youngest player in Ducks history to score a regular season hat-trick.

On August 30, 2022, it was announced that Steel had signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Wild. In the following 2022–23 season, Steel established new career highs offensively in registering 10 goals, 18 assists for 28 points through 65 regular season games.

As a pending restricted free agent, Steel was not tendered a qualifying offer by the Wild due to salary cap considerations on June 29, 2023. Released as a free agent, Steel was promptly signed at the opening of free agent frenzy to a one-year, $850,000 contract with the Dallas Stars on July 1, 2023.

On December 15, 2017, Steel was named to the 22-man roster to represent Canada at the IIHF World U20 Championship. As noted elsewhere, he was part of the Gold Medal team, and missed in a shootout loss to USA in an outdoor game at New Era Arena, home of the NFL Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York. In August 2015, he was a member of another gold Medal Canadian Junior team, at the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament held in Břeclav, Czech Republic.

Steel's older brother Patrick (October 7, 1993 - November 9, 2011) also played hockey. While playing hockey for the Canmore Eagles of the AJHL, Patrick died from an undetected heart problem.

Regular season and playoffs

International

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2014	Canada Black	U17	7th		5	1	2	3	4
2015	Canada	IH18			4	1	2	3	2
2018	Canada	WJC			7	4	5	9	0
Junior totals					16	6	9	15	6