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Meet ASU women's hockey's two new recruits

Kyran Lackey and Abby Steinman are a part of ASU's 2018-19 recruiting class

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Kyran Lackey and Abby Steinman pose for a photo after practice for the Arizona Lady Coyotes at Oceanside Ice Arena on Monday, Oct. 24, 2017.


The ASU women’s hockey team features eight players from the state of Arizona. While many college hockey programs look to other areas for recruiting, the Sun Devils are searching in their own backyard.

“There is so much good talent coming up in Arizona,” ASU head coach Lindsey Ellis said. “It’s really fun for us to recruit them just because they can see us up close and personal, whereas a lot of the other girls – it’s through video and phone calls.”

For ASU, one of the pipelines for local recruiting has been with the Arizona Lady Coyotes. The Lady Coyotes are a club hockey program that has produced a plethora of talented female hockey players throughout the valley. 

Next season, ASU will add two more local talents from the hockey club.

Kyran Lackey and Abby Steinman are players for the U19 Lady Coyotes. Last April, Lackey committed to the Sun Devils, and just last month, ASU announced they would add Steinman to their list of up and coming commits.

Prior to her time with the Lady Coyotes, Lackey spent time in Colorado playing for the U19 AAA Colorado Select team. 

“The best I can describe it is nonstop,” Lackey said of her time in Colorado. “My team was all that I saw. It was every morning and on the weekend. I did online school, so it was kind of like my whole life was centered around hockey.”

Lackey will certainly be a valuable asset for ASU's team, which will be losing three senior captains, and some of their top offensive players at the end of this season.

“She’s a goal scorer,” Ellis said. “Coming into next year, she is already going to be a strong presence on the ice from game one.”

As for the most recent ASU commit, Steinman will add her own set of skills to ASU’s women’s hockey program, and her aspirations and accomplishments off the ice are just as impressive. 

“I was looking at (ASU) the school and what programs it has. I am majoring in global health there, and they have a really good program,” Steinman said.

Steinman is from New Hamburg, Ontario in Canada. While Canada might be considered the hockey center of the world, Steinman never played there. She did not start playing the game until she moved to Arizona, and she has only been playing hockey for five years.

“Phoenix is such a big city, and it was so hot compared to there (Canada),” Steinman said of her move. “In Canada, we had a bring-your-tractor-to-school day and things like that ... I like learning about new places and new cultures.”

Steinman is also a standout lacrosse player, and she plans to pursue the sport at ASU next season as a multi-sport student-athlete.

While Steinman’s accomplishments off the ice speak for themselves, it is her work ethic on the ice that the ASU coaching staff was most impressed with.

“She has a great attitude. She is always smiling, and she is always having fun,” Ellis said. “She is always working hard. As a coach, hard work is my number one thing, so I appreciate that coming in.”

Among the 15 players on ASU’s current roster, there will certainly be one familiar teammate for Lackey and Steinman when they arrive in Tempe next fall.

ASU sophomore forward Megan Mroczek was a captain for the Lady Coyotes during her senior year of high school. Mroczek used to be teammates with Lackey and Steinman, and the trio of club hockey companions will reunite come next season.

“I really think they will like ASU, and I think they will like the team,” Mroczek said. “They work hard, and it will be a good balance for them … they are like little sisters to me.”

Ellis has been pleased with the players that the program has picked up so far, but there is still more work to be done.

“Recruiting has been a little different this year. It has been a lot harder in previous years just because of being such a new program,” Ellis said. “Now that we are getting more established, recruiting is becoming a lot easier for us. We are excited to have three (commitments), and we want nine more.”


Reach the reporter at atbell1@asu.edu or follow @AndrewBell7 on Twitter.

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