Steven Santini
Episode 383
8 JUNE 2026
A defenseman who played in twelve games for the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning this season, picking up one assist and finishing with +1 plus/minus rating. He also played in 33 games with and was captain of the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, recording six assists and finishing as a +10 with them. He had been a second round draft choice, 42nd overall, of the New Jersey Devils back in the 2013 NHL Draft. In total he has played 136 regular season games in the NHL, having also seen action with the St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, and New Jersey. He helped the United States win a silver medal at the 2012 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge and was named the best defenseman at the 2013 Under-18 World Championship, when the U.S. won silver. He played his college hockey at Boston College.
Notable guest quotes:
“My dad was your traditional Italian Catholic family from the Bronx. He went to Catholic school all the way through high school, everything. So, he was an important part of instilling the Catholic lifestyle into all of us and me and my sisters all went to Catholic high school.”
“I played baseball up until pretty much halfway through high school. I kind of had to devote my time to hockey, but I really liked baseball. I played it competitively. It was a sport I still like and then I probably stopped football around a little earlier, around middle school, just to focus on the falls and mainly be hockey.”
“As a preteen, I developed a strong level of faith whether it was going to church or daily prayer, do Bible readings, whatever it was. I was kind of into it and ironically when I moved out in my junior high school to play with the U.S. Development Team in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I actually didn’t have a car, but by the chance of God, I was actually walking distance from a Catholic church. I was able to go to church most weekends and I always thought that was just a cool thing that God’s always got you in mind.”
“I would say that particular injury at that particular part of my life, I wouldn’t say it challenged my faith, but it was definitely the first adversity.”
“You have all those people you rely on and obviously at (Boston College), we had a team priest, Father Tony Penna, who worked with the hockey team for several years and… We would meet every week during that time, and I don’t really feel like my faith was tested because I’ve never questioned my faith.”
“Father T, we used to call him, he was great. He would pretty much travel with us on the road. We would do Sunday Masses. If we played Sundays at 3, we would do a Mass right at 8 a.m. before 9 o’clock breakfast and guys would come into his office and meet with him or have lunch with him once a week. And I was really religious, but some of my teammates who maybe weren’t, he would just kind of talk about life and kind of he was a big part of helping one of my good teammates get confirmed.”
“I always just find for me, I can name a ton of cities we’ve been in, whether it’s Syracuse, Tampa, Milwaukee, I can go on and on. There’s always a Catholic church somewhere nearby. And even on the road in today’s world of Google Maps and Uber, you can find a Catholic church on the road.”
“You can keep up with it as much as you want. If you want to go to church, you’re going to find a church to go to.”
“I usually say a prayer at the house or the hotel before I leave and then I usually say one right before I start getting my gear on.”
“From my experiences in the locker rooms I’ve been in most guys are pretty open about their religion. I think a lot of guys wear the cross chains; a lot of guys have tattoos of crosses or Bible verses.”
“When you’re younger, you’re so focused on yourself and hockey, and then being married and having two children you learn that life is not about you and your hockey career. I still take what I do really seriously, I work hard, I compete hard, I do the best I can, I want to do the best by myself and my teammates. But at the end of the day, my kids, they don’t care if I win or lose. My wife, it’s not fair to her if I come home in a bad mood after a bad game.”
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