The Sheffield Steelers are the pride of Yorkshire, and are the most successful British hockey team over the last 25 years. Since their creation in 1991, they have won eight British titles and countless other awards.

by Jon Rowson

Prior to their creation, Sheffield had always been a football city. Both Sheffield United and Wednesday commanded large attendance and their rivalry divided the city. However, the construction of the Sheffield Arena for the 1991 World Student Games gave rise to the possibility of professional ice hockey in South Yorkshire. A few months later, 2,300 people attended the Steelers’ first-ever game against the Durham Wasps. 

Rapid rise to the top

The city of Sheffield took to hockey like a duck to water, and the Steelers recorded their first sell-out of the Sheffield Arena just a year later, with attendance frequently topping the 8,000 mark. Off-ice success was paralleled on the ice and the Steelers, under the tutelage of player-coach and former NHL defenceman Ron Shudra, easily navigated the waters of the British League Divisions 1 and 2, eventually gaining promotion to the British League Premier Division. Shudra’s tenure as coach would only last a season, but the former Edmonton Oiler would go on to have a storied career with the Steelers, spending 12 seasons with the club.

Alex Dampier replaced Shudra, becoming the first full-time head coach of the Steelers. The Ontarian was no stranger to British hockey, having first coached the Murrayfield Racers in 1979, but it was with the Steelers that he would have his greatest success, masterminding the 1995–96 ‘Grand Slam’, whereby the Steelers won all three trophies awarded that season (league championship, playoffs and B&H Cup). Shudra was a member of this roster, in addition to other greats of British hockey such as Tony Hand, David Longstaff and Ken Priestlay.

Dampier was retained as the Steelers’ head coach as the club joined the newly formed British Superleague, and managed to lead the Yorkshire club to second place, a mere four points behind eventual champions, the Cardiff Devils. However, a disastrous 1997–98 campaign saw the Steelers slump to sixth position, still their worst league finish in the club’s 25-year history.

There’s no harm in repeating a good thing

In a rather strange turn of events, Dampier moved to the Steelers’ fierce rivals, the Nottingham Panthers, replacing Mike Blaisdell, who was then employed by the Steelers after Don McKee failed to improve on sixth place in the 1998–99 season. Blaisdell would go on to write his name in the Steelers’ history books, as in 2000–01, the Steelers would go on to win their second ‘Grand Slam’, dominating the Superleague as they lost just 9 of 48 games on their march to the top. Only David Longstaff remained from the 1995–96 roster, but other great names on that roster included Dennis Vial and Scott Allison.

As the Superleague began to disintegrate as the result of financial mismanagement, the Steelers claimed the final Superleague title in 2002–03, before British hockey reformed under its new, current framework, the Elite Ice Hockey League. The Steelers were a class above in the first EIHL season, winning 44 of 56 games to claim the Monteith Bowl for the first time in its history. Buoyed by the free-scoring Mark Dutiaume and Erik Anderson, the mid-season acquisition of netminder Christian Bronsard was vital to the Steelers’ eventual victory, as the Canadian recorded a miraculous .941 save percentage in 17 games down the stretch.

The slump that follows success

After three titles in four seasons, the floor fell out from underneath the Steelers. The domestic dominance of the Coventry Blaze pushed the Steelers out of the spotlight, as the Yorkshire side fell to a fifth place finish in 2004–05, as the team struggled to find the same offensive spark which characterised their play the season before. 

Dave Whistle was recruited as head coach for the 2005–06 season, with the Steelers also signing goaltender Jody Lehman, who backstopped the Blaze to their ‘Grand Slam’ in 2004–05, but myriad off ice distractions saw the Steelers flatter to deceive and finish sixth in the EIHL table, boasting the worst goal scoring record that season.

However, success is never too far away 

Whistle was quickly moved on and replaced by David Matsos, who would hold the reigns as the Steelers’ head coach for the next four seasons. Under his command, the Steelers would slowly climb back up the EIHL table, finishing third and second before finally reclaiming the Monteith Bowl in 2008–09, in large part a result of Lehman’s play, who turned back the years to help the Steelers to a famous league–playoff double. On the back of this domestic success, the Steelers’ participation in the 2009–10 Continental Cup would be one for the history books, as the Steelers advanced from the third round to eventually finish third in the Super Final, behind Red Bull Salzburg and Yunost Minsk.

The EIHL era has been somewhat of a coaching merry-go-round for the Steelers, as in the wake of Matsos’ departure, both Ben Simon, Ryan Finnerty and Gerad Adams failed to secure long tenures with the club, despite Simon and most recently Adams winning the EIHL championship. Despite leading the Steelers to the 2014–15 EIHL championship, Adams was let go as the Steelers sought to bring in Paul Thompson, the former Great Britain and Coventry Blaze coach, with four EIHL championships to his credit. Thompson promptly led the Steelers to a ninth title, and their first appearance in the Champions Hockey League in the fall of 2015.

Additionally, as is often the case with British hockey, many of the import players come and go freely whilst British players often remain with the same clubs for many a season. No-one personifies the EIHL-era Steelers like Jonathan Phillips, the current Great Britain national team captain, and is about to embark on his 11th season as a Sheffield Steeler. 

Team facts

CHL seasons

2015–16: 3rd in Group N

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NOTE: This article has been updated since its original publication.