Stars Announce New Deal for Sam Steel
This past Monday, September 21st, the Dallas Stars locked up a blue-collar role player; Sam Steel signed a four-year deal on September 23rd.
Jim Nill kept a blue-collar, hard-working centerman for years to come.
From winning faceoffs to blocking shots, Steel does all of the important jobs that won’t make ESPN Sports Center top 10.
Yet he’ll always have a place on an NHL team.
Defense-First Penalty Killer
Steel’s biggest jobs are being a defensive forward and killing penalties. He’ll likely be playing on the third (aka the checking) line most of the time. Steel is at his best as a bottom-six forward.
Occasionally, Steel can surprise with a goal—someone you can count on for depth scoring. The Stars are hoping Steel can pot a few five-on-fives after game 84, too. It’s not just Steel on this Stars team who need to score more. The same goes for everybody except Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston.
Veteran Sticking Around
To win in the NHL, you need your youth movement, and veterans like Steel who know their way around the league. Entering his eighth season in the NHL, Steel has been around for a minute. He’ll be starting his fourth year in Dallas. Steel will be eager to keep the string of consecutive playoff appearances going and, hopefully, go deeper into the spring and summer than in previous years.
Steel is one of the most reliable players to be on a roster night in and night out. With Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Roppe Hintz, and Matt Duchene in your lineup, injuries will be a problem. Expanding the regular season by two games and two fewer preseason games will mean more injuries for everyone. It’s the nature of the beast. Steel will become more valuable in Dallas than ever before.
All 32 teams will deal with injuries. Having a guy who is known to do all of the dirty work (the Carolina Hurricanes are full of guys known for this) can make a big difference down the line.
He Can Play Anywhere
Steel is a bottom-six center who can slot into any position in the Stars lineup. A versatile forward in the event of injuries, and on special teams (in particular the penalty kill).
Dallas will prefer he play on the bottom six, and he is one of the best at keeping the opposing team’s power-play numbers down
Finishing is Steel’s number-one criticism. He has scored 61 goals off of 175 points thus far in his NHL career.
Steel doesn’t need to be a top-five goal scorer on the team. He needs to find the back of the net a bit more often. Also, keep scoring timely goals like this one.
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