Ice Hockey
- Title:
- Player Development
- Email:
- shields@umich.edu
- Phone:
- (734) 647-1201
Steve Shields enters his second season as program assistant, after serving as volunteer coach from 2015-19.Â
In his first year as a program assistant, Michigan was on a roll before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wolverines were ranked No. 17 in the nation and was No. 14 in the Pairwise with an 18-14-4 record. As the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament, the Wolverines had posted back-to-back shutouts over Michigan State in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament and were set to play Ohio State in the semifinals. Strauss Mann was named a finalist for the Mike Richter Award, was the Big Ten Goaltender of the Year, while also being named a finalist for the Big Ten Player of the Year.
The North Bay, Ontario native helped to lead Michigan to a 22-15-3 record and an NCAA Frozen Four Berth during the 2017-18 season. The Wolverines advanced to a record 25th Frozen Four on the heels of an NCAA Northeast Regional Championship, where they defeated Northeastern and Boston University.Â
The following year, in the 2017-18 season, Shields helped establish Hayden Lavigne as one of the top goaltenders in the country, where the sophomore was named Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year Finalist, Northeast Regional All-Tournament Team (3/25), Big Ten Honorable Mention (3/13), Hero Sports Hero of the Week (2/22), NCAA Third Star of the Week (2/20) and Two-time Big Ten First Star of the Week (1/23) (2/20) all within the last two and a half months of the season.
The following year while posting a 13-16-7 record, Quinn Hughes was a first-team All-America and a finalist for the Hobey Baker trophy. Hughes was one of three that signed entry-level NHL contracts at the conclusion of the season, signing with Vancouver, while Josh Norris inked with Ottawa, Joe Cecconi with Dallas.
Â
Shields had a standout four-year career at Michigan 1990-94, becoming the first NCAA goalie to ever reach 100 career wins with the Wolverines at 111, a record surpassed by Marty Turco '98 (125 wins) in the NCAA record book.
Shields helped lead the hockey program back to prominence, as part of first class in Red Berenson's tenure to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons.
With Shields in net, Michigan won two regular-season Central Collegiate Hockey Association titles and made back-to-back Frozen Four appearances in 1992-93. Shields earned All-CCHA First Team and All-America Second Team recognition as both a junior and senior.
A Buffalo Sabres draft pick, Shields played 12 years of professional hockey, including 10 seasons as a goaltender in the NHL from 1996-2006. He played for six different NHL organizations including: Buffalo, San Jose, Anaheim, Boston, Florida and Atlanta. He finished his NHL career appearing in 246 games with an 80-104-40 career record, a 2.67 goals-against average and .907 save percentage.
During his time as a player, Shields was taught by four of the hockey world's most respected goaltending coaches: Mitch Korn (Buffalo), Warren Strelow (San Jose), Wayne Thomas (San Jose) and Francois Allaire (Anaheim).
Following the end of his playing career, Shields has been involved in the development of hockey players of all levels. He served under Mel Pearson as a volunteer assistant coach at Michigan Tech for two seasons from 2011-2013 before joining the Florida Panthers as a goaltending consultant in the summer of 2013.
