Sheffield Steelers


The Sheffield Steelers are a professional ice hockey team located in Sheffield, England. They were formed in 1991 and play their home games at the FlyDSA Arena. They are currently a member of the Elite Ice Hockey League. The club's main sponsor is Sheffield Window Centre.

History

Ice Hockey existed in amateur form in Sheffield, but the sport began its return to an era of arenas and stadium size crowds with the opening of the Sheffield Arena in 1991 and the creation of the Sheffield Steelers — the ice hockey team that was to occupy the new arena. The Sheffield Arena was built as part of the city's facilities for the staging of the World Student Games, and is a sizeable stadium originally seating 8,500 and located close to the city centre. Ronnie Wood and David Gardener-Brown were at the helm as the Marketing Director at the club and set about promoting ice hockey to a city raised on the footballing success of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Wood had a specific target, seeking to attract children and families to the city's new sporting Arena. They also began taking players to local football matches and parading them around the ground with mascots in an attempt to pull in football fans too. Another marketing ploy was to give certain players nicknames to help the crowd associate with the new players.
The Steelers were named in honour of Sheffield's industrial past, much like the American football team of the same name based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the sharing of nicknames is merely a coincidence. The American football team actually predates Sheffield's team by 58 years and was already popular worldwide due to their dominance in the National Football League in the 1970s. Sheffield and Pittsburgh are considered sister cities.
The Sheffield Steelers were the first ever fully professional ice hockey team in Great Britain, and O'Brien suggested that there was a lot of resentment from the followers of other hockey teams who saw them as a "cheque book hockey club" able to buy whoever they chose. Likewise, Sluyter questions the authenticity of the majority of Steelers fans in the club's early days. Sluyter suggested hockey fans of teams like Cardiff, Fife and Nottingham were ice hockey fans first and foremost, while Steelers' supporters were only Steelers fans, and knew very little of ice hockey outside of Sheffield. However, it made little difference as Sheffield began breaking several British ice hockey attendance records, and in March of that year added an extra 1,200 seats to the Arena to meet the growing demand.
Sheffield Steelers had begun their first ever season in English Division One of the British Hockey League. One year later Sheffield Steelers won promotion into the British Premier League, before going on to win this in 1995 — the last team to do so before the formation of the new British Ice Hockey Super League that year.
On Sunday 3 December 2006, the Steelers played in their 1000th ever game. The game was against the Basingstoke Bison at the Hallam FM Arena, for which special orange jerseys had been made for the match. The Steelers lost the game 3–2 and the jerseys were all auctioned off at the game.

2000–present

In the 2000–01 campaign the Steelers completed a Grand Slam, becoming only the second club to win the Autumn Cup, League, Challenge Cup and Playoff Titles in the same season. They retained the Play-off title the following season, the first team to achieve this in the Superleague era, beating Manchester Storm on penalties in the Play-Off final, held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham in front of a full house.
David Matsos was appointed as coach for the 2006–07 season. He led the Steelers to a fourth-place finish in the league and a place in the Challenge Cup Finals. The club broke an Elite League Attendance record against the Manchester Phoenix with an attendance of 7,339.
In 2007 team Owner Bob Phillips and his wife sold their other Elite League club the Cardiff Devils in order to concentrate on building the Steelers. The club won that season's Elite League Playoff Championship after beating the Coventry Blaze 2–0 in the final with goals from Johnathan Phillips and Dan Tessier. The Steelers were knocked out of the following season's Knockout Cup and Challenge Cup early, but finished first in a league campaign that saw them lose just three times in regulation. They made this a double by beating Nottingham Panthers 2–0 in the Play-Off final. The Steelers season ended in the Quarter Finals of the Play-offs after being knocked out by the Cardiff Devils.
The 2010–11 season was preceded by a "walk-out" of Steelers management and office staff, after a vote of no confidence in Owner Bob Phillips. Phillips put the club up for sale, and in December 2010 Paul Ragan, the CEO and owner of the Cardiff Devils, finalised acquiring the rights to the Sheffield Steelers. The Steelers were at the top of the league for the majority of the season, battling it out with the Cardiff Devils,.and won the league after back-to-back victories against the Braehead Clan. The Steelers were tied on points with Cardiff but won the league having more regulation time wins. After several rounds of negotiations, Simon decided not to renew his contract, and Ryan Finnerty was installed as player/coach after. During that season Sheffield Steelers became the first EIHL team to win a medal in Europe after their appearance in the Continental Cup superfinal.
Tony Smith took over as sole owner in August 2011 after buying out Paul Ragan. The Steelers won the 2013–14 Play-Off final 3–2 against Belfast Giants.
At the end of season 2014–15 they beat the Cardiff Devils to clinch the Elite League title with 74 points. On 20 April 2015, they parted company with coach Gerad Adams. They soon brought in Paul Thompson, former GB coach, as Head Coach and General Manager. At the end of season 2015–16 they became only the second club in the history of ice hockey to become back to back champions when they defeated the Fife Flyers on the final day of the season to take the title.
Paul Thompson left the Sheffield Steelers on 1 October 2018, citing personal reasons. He was replaced as Head Coach by Tom Barrasso. On 16 April 2019 the club announced that Aaron Fox had been appointed as Head Coach and General Manager of the club.
On the 8th March 2020, the Steelers won the 2019-20 Challenge Cup beating Cardiff Devils 4-3 - their first Challenge Cup title for 17 years.

Current squad

2020-21 Elite Ice Hockey League season
The Steelers have retired the numbers of six players. Ronnie Wood's number 7 and Tim Cranston's number 4 have been retired. Tony Hand's number 16 and Ken Priestlay's number 9 were retired on 21 January 2003 at a challenge match against the Dundee Stars, with Ron Shudra's number 26 retired in summer 2009. Tommy Plommer's number 11 has also been retired.
Eight people who have been associated with the Steelers have been inducted to the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame. Alex Dampier, who coached the Steelers from January 1993 to the end of the 1997–98 season, was inducted in 1995 and Mike Blaisdell, who coached and occasionally iced for the Steelers between 1999 and 2004, was inducted in 2004. On the player front, Chris Kelland was inducted in 2002, Rick Brebant in 2004, Paul Adey in 2006, Scott Neil in 2007, and most recently, legendary players Tim Cranston and 'Rocket' Ron Shudra in December 2010.
The Steelers started their own Hall of Fame in 2005 in which honoured members are voted for by the fans. There are two Hall of Fames: The Players Hall of Fame and the Backroom Staff Hall of Fame. Ken Priestlay, Tommy Plommer, Scott Allison and Tim Cranston were inducted to the Players Hall of Fame in 2005 and Ron Shudra and Mike Blaisdell were inducted in 2006. David Simms, responsible for Press and Media at the club, and Andy Akers, Equipment Manager, were inducted to the Backroom Staff Hall of Fame in 2006 and Mike O'Connor, General Manager, was inducted in 2007.

Honours and awards

League Championships
Play Off Championships
Autumn Cups
Challenge Cups
20–20 Hockeyfest Tournament
  • 2009–10
Player of the Year Trophy
  • Ed Courtenay – 1999–00
  • David Longstaff – 2000–01
  • Joel Laing – 2002–03
  • Mathieu Roy – 2014–15
Coach of the Year Trophy
  • Mike Blaisdell – 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04
  • David Matsos – 2008–09
The Ice Hockey Annual Trophy
First Team All-Star
Second Team All-Star'''
The Steelers have won the of all available trophies twice in their history. In the 1995–96 season they won the Benson & Hedges Cup, the league championship and the playoffs. In the 2000–01 season they won the Benson & Hedges Cup, the Challenge Cup, the league championship and the playoffs. The players who played for the Steelers those seasons were:

1995–96 team

Goaltenders
Defenders
Forwards
Goaltenders
Defenders
Forwards
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
SeasonLeagueGPWLTOTLPtsGFGAFinal League Position
1991–92English League Division 13227410553781632nd
1992–93British League Division 13222640483001862nd
1993–94British League Premier Division4428124055†3131983rd†
1994–95British League Premier Division4435540743341831st
1995–96British League Premier Division3627450592681221st
1996–97Ice Hockey Superleague44271142601681272nd
1997–98Ice Hockey Superleague44201833501691636th
1998–99Ice Hockey Superleague42171942401351416th
1999–00Ice Hockey Superleague42241422521881552nd
2000–01Ice Hockey Superleague4835904104‡1621151st
2001–02Ice Hockey Superleague481818120481381443rd
2002–03Ice Hockey Superleague3218851421621151st††
2003–04Elite Ice Hockey League5644831922141061st
2004–05Elite Ice Hockey League50251753581181105th
2005–06Elite Ice Hockey League42151962381051356th
2006–07Elite Ice Hockey League543016–8681631543rd
2007–08Elite Ice Hockey League543814–2781901292nd
2008–09Elite Ice Hockey League54416–7892011151st
2009–10Elite Ice Hockey League562426–6541941965th
2010–11Elite Ice Hockey League544310–1872651321st
2011–12Elite Ice Hockey League544111–2842091302nd
2012–13Elite Ice Hockey League523514–3731841333rd
2013–14Elite Ice Hockey League523117–4661721412nd
2014–15Elite Ice Hockey League523513–4741931341st
2015–16Elite Ice Hockey League523414–4721901611st
2016–17Elite Ice Hockey League523514–3731961363rd
2017–18Elite Ice Hockey League563419–3712171403rd
2018–19Elite Ice Hockey League603026–4641832037th
2019–20Elite Ice Hockey League493117–1632111542nd†††

Club records

League titles