Alex Steeves was a bit of a forgotten man with the Boston Bruins in the second half of Boston’s regular season.
The 26-year-old finished a solid first NHL season with nine goals and 16 points in 43 games, along with a plus-6 rating, while averaging 11:55 of ice time and parlayed that into a two-year NHL contract extension worth $3.25 million that will keep him in the NHL for the foreseeable future.
Interestingly, Steeves played just 10 games in the second half of the regular season after signing that extension in late January and fell out of the regular forward rotation with Mikey Eyssimont and waiver pickup Lukas Reichel soaking up most of the playing time in the second half. The forward's game isn't dazzling, eye-popping skill and his skating speed is "good enough" rather than "blazing", but he is strong on the puck, wins a lot of his battles and plays the kind of hard skill-style that can make for a really effective bottom-6 forward at the NHL level.
21 can do something for ya!
— Kasey Hudson (@TheSportsKase) February 2, 2026
Alex Steeves parks in the slot to polish off a pass from Mikey Eyssimont. It’s 1-1 at Raymond James Stadium. pic.twitter.com/J9ejn18UmD
Steeves and Eyssimont did play in the last couple of playoff games when the Bruins decided to step up their forechecking attack, and understandably looked at his season as a nice stepping stone toward better things as Bruins breakup day while freely admitting he didn’t love mostly being in the doghouse down the stretch.
“A lot of pain, honestly. Like it was probably the most painful stretch of my career, honestly. I'm a competitor like most of us are, and I want to play, and I didn't play very much,” said Steeves during Bruins breakup day back at the beginning of the month. “So I'm gonna try to keep that pain with me this summer in a good way. Not in a heavy way, but in a good way. And, like I said, just keep getting better. That's what it's been my whole career and that's what I'll continue to do. But it was a really good first year. It's a tremendous organization and this is where I want to be.”
Steeves used that experience and motivation when added to Team USA’s roster for the 2026 IIHF World Championships in Switzerland and was one of the US team’s most effective forwards with a goal and three points in eight games while topping 15 minutes of ice time per game as a consistent top-6 guy on that team.
Steeves wasn’t one of the big-time scorers like Matthew Tkachuk, Isaac Howard and Tommy Novak or even Columbus tough guy Mathieu Olivier, but he was a penalty killer, a strong forechecker and the kind of guy who looked like he could, and should, be a bottom-6 regular at the NHL level moving forward. It was a solid reminder of what Steeves can do when confidence is high and he's playing up to his solid skill and grit levels.
Five goals in five games for Alex Steeves, who has been an absolute find for the Boston Bruins organization. Once again the B’s pro scouts are finding quality players from other organization’s American League teams pic.twitter.com/0Ln3QTMn7N
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) December 5, 2025
Steeves’ fellow Bruins teammates on Team USA had their moments as well, as James Hagens had a good stretch playing center in the middle of the tournament and finished with an assist and a plus-2 in seven games played. The 19-year-old Hagens did look a little out of his element in the quarter-final elimination loss to Team Canada earlier this week and didn’t take a shift in the third period when the Americans were down 2-0 in an eventual 4-0 elimination defeat at the hands of Canada.
Mason Lohrei didn’t factor into things offensively in the tournament but was a consistent top-pair D-man for Team USA while finishing third on the team in ice time with 18:27 per game behind only NHL stalwarts Tkachuk and Justin Faulk.
Interestingly, one of Steeves' biggest competitors for Bruins playing time for next season, Reichel, had a strong tourney for Team Germany and finished with a hat trick in one of the games while racking up four goals and eight points in the tournament along with a plus-2 rating.
Some of Steeves’ inactivity in the second half was a desire for the Bruins to get faster with their attack and to go with a bit more of a passive forecheck while enacting more of the neutral zone trap. Certainly, that was the plan in the playoffs against the Buffalo Sabres until they opted to adjust and get a little more aggressive at the end of the series as things got a bit more desperate.
But some of it was also about Steeves not being able to finish off offensive plays that his aggressiveness and hockey IQ put him in a position to make, a new challenge for the player coming off a previous AHL season where he approached 40 goals scored for the Marlies. It’s something Steeves knows will need to improve if he wants to A) stay in the Bruins lineup and B) continue to make himself an option to play higher in the lineup, where more offensive opportunities will arrive.
“I think I was just playing my game, playing physical, energetic, getting to spots where I can use my shot, stuff like that,” said Steeves, of what he was doing when things were going well for him last season. “I think that I guess not being consistent in that aspect, there was probably a lot of variables that went into that. But for me, it's focusing on those things, how can I be consistent and honestly even better.
“I think a lot of it as this was my rookie year, I'm not a baby like [Fraser Minten], but I'm still a young guy. I feel like as I go through my process this summer and look back, for me, it'll be about identifying how I can more consistently get to those areas and use my scoring ability because I do feel like I can score at any level.”
Steeves makes a great point that this past season should be looked on as a learning/development experience for him, just as it’s looked at that way for younger players like Minten or Hagens. And he’s coming off a season where he finished 11th on the Bruins in goals scored last season while essentially not playing half of the regular-season games, a fact that isn’t lost on the player himself as he jumps into his offseason after a solid, just concluded, experience at Worlds.