Last Friday, Big Green hockey player Lee Stempniak '05 was awarded ECAC All-Decade first-team accolades. Every 10 years, a committee of coaches, media members and League administrators vote for members of the team based on who they think were the most accomplished players in the ECAC from the 1999 to 2009.
"I would have been shocked had he not been picked," Dartmouth men's hockey head coach Bob Gaudet said about Stempniak's achievement. "As a coach going on 30 years, he's really amongst the elite players to play college hockey."
While at Dartmouth, Stempniak, an economics major, received playing time as a forward during all four years of his college career and was a captain his senior year.
Stempniak scored over 35 points in three different seasons and led the Big Green in scoring during that stretch. He was also named the team's most valuable player three times and eventually earned the fourth-place ranking for overall career scoring for Dartmouth with 151 points.
A two-time All-American, Stempniak also received All-ECAC and All-Ivy first-team honors in 2005, after being the top scorer in the ECAC during the 2004-05 season.
Gaudet said Stempniak's ability to manage grades while still maintaining an excellent level of performance on the hockey team made him a role model for his fellow teammates.
"He is one of the hardest working guys that I have ever coached, but he was also very skilled," Gaudet said. "What I saw in Lee was that he had an incredible work ethic. He's highly conditioned, he's always trying to find a way to get a little bit quicker, a little bit better and he's constantly learning."
After graduating, Stempniak immediately went on to play in the National Hockey League. From 2005 to 2008, Stempniak played for the St. Louis Blues, second on the team in goals in his first full season. In 2008, he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs and then became a member of his current team, the Phoenix Coyotes, in March. Several Dartmouth hockey players have gone on to play professionally, but Stempniak's talent and dedication put him in a league of his own, according to Gaudet.
"He's a very gifted person and very athletically gifted," Gaudent said. "He's one of those guys that is very bright and very personable."
While Stempniak was Dartmouth's sole representative on the All-Decade team, Cornell University led the league with three alumni selected for the team. St. Lawrence University and Harvard University each had two players for the team.
Gaudet said that even though none of the current team members had the opportunity to play alongside Stempniak, the athletes still look up to him.
"There's really a feeling of pride in Lee's accomplishments because he wore the same uniform, he played in our rink and he's gone on to do really great things," Gaudet said. "He had his start here at Dartmouth College this is where people saw him potentially as a professional hockey player and where he honed his skills."
Stempniak has set a unique example for the team that extends beyond athletic ability, Gaudet added.
"What Lee left as a legacy is that he is a very humble guy," Gaudet said. "He's a star, but you would never know it. Lee's no different now than he was when he was a freshman in college."
According to Gaudet, Stempniak plans on moving back to Hanover for the off-season to train with Bob Miller, the hockey team's strength training coach.
"[Stempniak is] a guy that really cares about our program," Gaudet said. "He's been a really good ambassador to our college, and he is one of the classiest professional athletes anyone could ever meet."
Stempniak could not be reached for comment by press time.
