A two-time all American, Lee Stempniak captained the hockey team and majored in economics at Ivy League school, Dartmouth College. In his first full season in the NHL, Stempniak led the St. Louis Blues in goals with 27 and was second in points with 52. The West Seneca, New York native was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in November 2008 in exchange for Alexander Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo.

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Lee Stempniak #12 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates on against the Atlanta Thrashers on December 30, 2008 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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"My dad came home from work one day and one of his coworkers had signed his son up for a learn-to-skate program," recalls Toronto Maple Leaf winger, Lee Stempniak after a game day skate at the Air Canada Centre. "Later that day he drove me to the rink to watch a game and I decided I wanted to do it." Starting with skating lessons, the talented winger battled through four weeks of training before playing his first game. "I remember we were the West Seneca Rangers," said Stempniak. "I think it was four weeks of learning to skate and then we played games for the last half."

Not only did the future NHler learn the fundamentals in that beginner program he also found the number he would wear for a long time. "Coincidentally I wore number 12 for a couple years as a kid, but then I switched back to 95-that was the number I was given in the learn-to-skate class." remembers Stempniak. "We had those football type jerseys so when it came time to choose my own number I just went to that one and I wore 95 for a long time."

The 6-foot 195lbs winger didn't come from a hockey family, but feels he benefited from the unconditional support of  both his mother and father. "Neither of my parents played hockey, but they drove me and my brother everywhere," recalls the five-year NHL pro. "It was really nice knowing that either our mom or dad would be there taking us to practice or at the games. They were always there to take us home and for me it was really comforting."

Stempniak reminisced on the rides home from the rink as being almost always a positive experience. "I'm not sure if it was because my dad didn't really know too much about the game or because he was just interested in having fun," said Stempniak. "I don't think in his wildest dreams that he thought I would be playing in the NHL at the end of it." It's also hard to believe Stempniak would play on that same West Seneca Ice Rink until leaving for college. "I played in that same rink from when I was five years old until I was18," said Stempniak. "I was lucky-the next town over only had an open-air rink which was half wall and half chain link fence and it was absolutely freezing all the time."

Like most young hockey players, Stempniak idolized some of the stars of the game when he was growing up. "I really liked Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman and being from Buffalo I was a big Dave Andreychuk fan," said the western New York native. "I was fortunate to play against all three of them in my first year in the league and my first game was against Steve Yzerman which was really awesome."

If hockey didn't pan out, Stempniak was poised for a career in finance by cutting his teeth in the world of economics with a few part-time jobs as a teenager and a big-time internship on Wall Street. "I worked at the West Seneca Rink pro-shop and snack bar during the winter and then they had a pool store during the summer where I'd work," recalls Stempniak of his part-time employment through high school. "I guess my last job was working for the summer at Goldman Sachs as in intern for two months in New York City."

One of Stempniak's fondest minor hockey memories was a game against a cross-state rival. "I remember it was in the New York State Tournament and we played Troy, New York in the semi-finals. We'd lost to them around Thanksgiving like 16-1 and everyone thought we were going to get slaughtered. I even remember the parents telling the coach just to make sure it didn't get out of hand," said Stempniak. "We ended up beating them 5-1 to go to the state finals which felt amazing."