Lee Ethel Stecklein (born April 23, 1994) is an American professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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

for the

Minnesota Frost The Minnesota Frost are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the six charter franchises of the league. The team plays its home games at Xc ...

of the

Professional Women's Hockey League The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; , LPHF) is a women's professional ice hockey league in North America. The league comprises eight teams, four each from the United States and Canada. The teams play a Season (sports), regular season ...

(PWHL) and a former member of the

United States women's national ice hockey team The United States women's national ice hockey team is controlled by USA Hockey. The U.S. has been one of the most successful women's ice hockey teams in international play, having medaled in every major tournament. In 1998, the women's Olympic ...

. Stecklein first represented the United States at the

2011 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship The 2011 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship was the fourth junior female world ice hockey championships. It was held from 1 January through 8 January 2011, in Stockholm, Sweden. The championship was the Under-18 junior ice hockey edition of the ...

, and went on to play at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. She played

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Stecklein is the only player to win both the NCAA national championship and the

IIHF World Women's Championship The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

in the same year three times. Stecklein played in the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

(NWHL) with the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at the Richfield Ice Arena. Established in 2004, the ...

before joining the

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian Women's Ho ...

(PWHPA), helping to advocate for the creation of a unified women's league. After the formation of the

(PWHL) in 2023, Stecklein was one of the first players to sign with Minnesota.

Playing career

NCAA

Stecklein played in all 41 games of her freshman season (

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

) at Minnesota, tallying three goals and nine assists. Stecklein went on to help the team win national titles in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. She was named team co-captain for her junior year and team captain for her senior year.

NWHL

Stecklein was selected second overall by the

Buffalo Beauts The Buffalo Beauts were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Amherst, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, at the Northtown Center. The Beauts were established in 2015 as one of the four founding f ...

in the

2016 NWHL Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number) *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen * ''Sixteen'' (20 ...

. However, due to the consolidation of the national team ahead of the 2018 Olympics, Stecklein was not expected to join the team for several seasons. Stecklein's NWHL plans changed when the Minnesota Whitecaps were added to the league as an expansion team ahead of the 2018–19 season. On June 20, 2018, Stecklein signed with the Whitecaps. In her lone season with the team, Stecklein helped the team win the

Isobel Cup The Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Cup, often shortened to Isobel Cup, is the championship trophy that was awarded annually to the now defunct Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) playoff winner. The trophy is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, th ...

, scoring the overtime winner in the championship game against the Beauts. Earlier in the season, Stecklein was named one of the team captains for the 4th NWHL All-Star Game.

PWHPA and the PWHL

In 2019, following the abrupt

collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League The collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League occurred in the spring of 2019. Previously one of the top women's ice hockey leagues in the world, the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; ) announced on 31 March 2019, that it would be foldin ...

, Stecklein joined more than 200 other prominent women's players in founding the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), which vowed to boycott the NWHL with the goal of establishing a unified and financially stable professional league. Stecklein released a statement saying that it was not possible to make a "sustainable living in the current state of the professional game", and specifically noted the low salaries and lack of health insurance policies. In 2023, the PWHPA and its partners announced the launch of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). On September 6, 2023, Stecklein was one of the first three players to sign with PWHL Minnesota, alongside national teammates

Kendall Coyne Schofield Kendall Coyne Schofield (born May 25, 1992) is an American professional ice hockey player and captain for the Minnesota Frost and the United States national team. With the national team, she has won six gold medals at the IIHF World Women's Ch ...

and

Kelly Pannek Kelly Pannek (born December 29, 1995) is an American professional ice hockey player for the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She previously played in the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association. Career In ...

. Ahead of the team's inaugural season, Stecklein was named an assistant captain. Stecklein was also voted as Minnesota's player representative for the

PWHL Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association (PWHLPA) is the labor union for the group of professional hockey players under contract with member teams of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). The Association serves as PWH ...

, the league's labour union. Stecklein scored her first goal with Minnesota on January 14, 2024, against

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

International play

Stecklein made her senior national team debut at the

2013 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2013 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 15th IIHF World Women's Championships, world championship sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and was the last world championship before the 2014 Winter Olympics. The tourn ...

, where she won a gold medal.Lee Stecklein: USA Hockey player bio.
/ref> She further represented Team USA at the

IIHF Women's World Championship The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, and

, and the

, and

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

. In total, Stecklein won seven World Championships and one Olympic gold medal. She was named the World Championship's best defender in 2021. In 2023, Stecklein stepped away from the national team. She returned to the team in time to be selected for the

2025 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 24th edition of the IIHF Women's World Championship, an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), contested in České Budějovice, Czech Repub ...

Personal life

Stecklein is from

Roseville, Minnesota Roseville is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Twin Cities suburbs that are bordered directly by Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul and Minneapolis (Lauderdale, M ...

and attended

Roseville Area High School Roseville Area High School (RAHS) is a public high school in Roseville, Minnesota, United States. It serves Roseville and the surrounding communities of Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Maplewood, and Shoreview. RAHS i ...

. She graduated from the

Carlson School of Management The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

with a BBA in entrepreneurial management in 2017. She was hired as a digital content specialist with

Clif Bar Clif Bar & Company is an American producer of energy foods and drinks. The company's flagship product, Clif Bar, was created by Gary Erickson and Lisa Thomas. The company is based in Emeryville, California, and was privately held until 2022 when ...

in 2018.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Sources:

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stecklein, Lee 1994 births Living people American women's ice hockey defensemen Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Ice hockey people from Dakota County, Minnesota Isobel Cup champions Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey players Minnesota Whitecaps players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the United States in ice hockey Sportspeople from Roseville, Minnesota People from South St. Paul, Minnesota Professional Women's Hockey Players Association players Minnesota Frost players Roseville Area High School alumni Ice hockey people from Ramsey County, Minnesota Walter Cup champions 21st-century American sportswomen