Steven Rice (born May 26, 1971) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

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 hock ...

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played eight seasons in 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 ...

in the 1990s. Rice was born in

Kitchener, Ontario ) , image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , blank_emblem_type = ...

. Rice was drafted 20th overall by 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 the

1989 NHL Entry Draft The 1989 NHL Entry Draft was the 27th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 17 at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Detroit Red Wings' 1989 draft has been noted as exceptionally successful, with 5,955 total NHL games played by the pla ...

. Following his outstanding performance at the 1991

World Junior Hockey Championships The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

, in which he captained Canada to the gold medal, he was considered one of the top young power forward prospects in the game. In the summer of 1991, he was sent to the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

as one of the centerpieces going the other way in the trade of superstar centre

Mark Messier Mark John Douglas Messier (; born January 18, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre of the National Hockey League (NHL). His playing career in the NHL lasted 25 years ( 1979– 2004) with the Edmonton Oilers and New York Rang ...

. His results in Edmonton would be mixed - he spent most of his first two seasons there with their AHL affiliate, but established himself as a full-time NHL player in 1993–94 scoring 17 goals. Following that season, he signed free-agent

offer sheet In North American professional sports, an offer sheet is a contract offered to a restricted free agent by a team other than the one for which he played during the prior season. Different leagues have different ways to handle offer sheets. NHL In th ...

with the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to ...

, and joined the Whalers the following season when Edmonton declined to match the offer. In his three years in Hartford, he established himself as a quality role player, scoring a career high 21 goals in 1996–97. However, a nightmare campaign in 1997–98 following the franchise's move to Carolina, in which he scored just 2 goals, effectively ended his NHL career. He retired at the premature age of 27. Rice came out of retirement in 2002, playing in the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

Major League Hockey Allan Cup Hockey (ACH), formerly Major League Hockey until 2011, is the top tier Canadian senior ice hockey league in the province of Ontario. Founded in 1990, as the Southwestern Senior "A" Hockey League, the ACH is a member of the Ontario Hock ...

, for the

Cambridge Hornets The Cambridge Hornets were a Senior "AAA" ice hockey team based out of Cambridge, Ontario. They played in the Ontario Hockey Association's Major League Hockey. The new Cambridge Hornets were brought into Southwestern Senior A Hockey League in 1999 ...

until 2006, and then briefly for the

Brantford Blast Brantford Blast are a Canadian senior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association's Allan Cup Hockey, from Brantford, Ontario. The team was established in 2000, and play their games at the Brantford Civic Centre. The Blast were the winn ...

in the same league before retiring for good in 2006. He played 329 career NHL games, scoring 64 goals and 61 assists for 125 points.

Career statistics

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Steven 1971 births Living people Binghamton Rangers players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Cape Breton Oilers players Carolina Hurricanes players Edmonton Oilers players Hartford Whalers players Ice hockey people from Ontario Kitchener Rangers players National Hockey League first-round draft picks New York Rangers draft picks New York Rangers players Sportspeople from Kitchener, Ontario