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 o ...

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 ski ...

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 ...

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. Rice was drafted 20th overall by the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Borough (New York City), 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 ...

in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. Following his outstanding performance at the 1991 World Junior Hockey Championships, 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 R ...

. 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 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 t ...

, 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's Major League Hockey, for the Cambridge Hornets until 2006, and then briefly for the Brantford Blast 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.

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* {{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