Dallas Stars Lock Up Sam Steel On Multi-Year Extension
Steeler is here to stay 🙌 pic.twitter.com/J79lAcj1Ik
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) September 21, 2026
The contract pays Steel a $3.7 million AAV and kicks in next season after he plays out his $2.1M cap hit in the coming campaign. He'll now be sticking around Dallas through the 2030-31 season.
Steel elevated himself to a new, solid role in 2025-26 with the Stars, setting career highs with 12 goals and 33 points, as well as game-winning goals (5) in 73 contests. He also had a +3 plus/minus rating.
But Steel's true value comes on the penalty kill, where, according to the team, since making his Dallas debut, no Stars forward has had more ice time than Steel.
“We couldn’t be happier to extend Sam,” said GM Jim Nill. “His consistency during his time with our team, especially on the penalty kill, plus his versatility has made him a valuable asset to our organization, and we’re happy to be locking him up for the next four seasons.”
Steel, 28, was a first-round pick (30th overall) by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2016 NHL Draft. Across 491 career NHL games, he's recorded 61 goals and 175 points.
This signing follows a developing trend over the last couple of weeks of teams around the NHL locking in supplementary players at the lower end of the pay scale for several years to get some cost certainty on their cap calculations.