Stephen Johns (born April 18, 1992) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

. He played with the

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and were founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minne ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). Johns was selected by the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

in the 2nd round (60th overall) of the

2010 NHL Entry Draft The 2010 NHL Entry Draft was the 48th NHL Entry Draft, held on June 25–26, 2010 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, home arena of the Los Angeles Kings. This was the first time Los Angeles hosted the NHL Entry Draft. An unofficial re ...

Playing career

As a youth, Johns played in the 2005

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament (french: Tournoi international de hockey pee-wee de Québec) is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, ...

with the Pittsburgh Hornets

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from c ...

team. As a junior, Johns played the 2009–10 season with the

USA Hockey National Team Development Program The United States National Team Development Program (NTDP) was started in 1996 by USA Hockey as a way to identify elite ice hockey players under the age of 18, and centralize their training. There are two teams in the program: under-17 and under- ...

. He was a member of the gold-medal-winning team at the

2010 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships was the 12th edition of the IIHF World U18 Championship. The tournament was held in Minsk and Babruysk, Belarus, between April 13 and April 23, 2010. Tournament games were played at the Minsk Sports Palace in ...

. Johns then played four seasons (2010–2014) of NCAA Division I hockey with the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team of the University of Notre Dame, competing at the NCAA Division I level as an associate member of the Big Ten Conference. The Irish play their home games at Co ...

team, helping Notre Dame to win the 2013 CCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. As a sophomore Johns was selected to compete with Team USA at the

2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 2012 IIHF U20 World Championship (commonly known as the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships) was the 36th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It was hosted in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It began on Dece ...

, and in his senior year his outstanding play was recognized when he was named to the

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

Second All-Star Team and also to the 2014 Hockey East All Tournament Team. On April 2, 2014, the

of the

(NHL) signed Johns to a two-year,

entry-level contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless of ...

to begin with the

2014–15 NHL season The 2014–15 NHL season was the 98th season of operation (97th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Los Angeles Kings became the first team to miss the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup the previous season since the C ...

, but he was immediately assigned to begin his professional career with the Blackhawks' AHL affiliate, the

Rockford IceHogs The Rockford IceHogs are a professional ice hockey team based in Rockford, Illinois. They are members of the American Hockey League (AHL), having begun play in the League starting in the 2007–08 season. The team plays their home games at the ...

on a professional try-out contract. On July 10, 2015, Johns and

Patrick Sharp Patrick Sharp (born December 27, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars. After his retirement as a pla ...

were traded by the Blackhawks to the

in exchange for

Trevor Daley Trevor Daley (born October 9, 1983) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the Florida Everblades of the ECHL and also serves as a hockey operations advisor for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played ...

and Ryan Garbutt. After attending his first training camp with the Stars, Johns was reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the

Texas Stars The Texas Stars are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin, with home games at the H-E-B Center. They are owned by the National Hockey League's (NHL) Dallas Stars and are the t ...

, to begin the 2015–16 season. Having passed his previous season's offensive numbers, he received his first NHL recall by the Dallas Stars and made his debut in a 5–2 victory over the

on March 12, 2016. He recorded his first career NHL goal on March 17, 2016 and the following day signed a two-year contract with the Stars. On January 18, 2020 Johns played his first game since returning from a post-traumatic headache he suffered during the 2017–18 season, in a Stars defeat against the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

, and on February 3, he scored his first goal in nearly 2 years in a victory against the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

. In 17 regular season games, Johns added 2 goals and 5 points before the season was paused due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. He returned to for the playoffs with the Stars, making 4 appearances as the club reached the

2020 Stanley Cup Finals The 2020 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2019–20 season and the culmination of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. This series was between the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning a ...

. Prior to the pandemic delayed

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Johns was announced to be a non-rostered designated player at the Stars commencement of training camp. He was ruled out for the entirety of the season with reoccurring post-concussion syndrome. With his contract concluded with the Dallas Stars, Johns announced his retirement from the NHL having played 6 professional seasons on June 13, 2021. While posting his retirement on Instagram, he announced would be rollerblading and road-tripping across the country in order to raise awareness of mental health.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Stephen 1992 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Chicago Blackhawks draft picks Dallas Stars players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey players Rockford IceHogs (AHL) players Texas Stars players USA Hockey National Team Development Program players People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania Ice hockey players from Pennsylvania