Sheffield Steelers: Michael Davies looking to end 16-year wait for championship

At the tender age of 16, he helped St Louis Junior Blues to the first ever national championship for the Missouri city.

Winning that Junior B title set the American talent on the way to a career in the AHL and German DEL, among others.

But in those 16 years, Davies has not won another championship – and he's joined Sheffield Steelers to accomplish precisely that.

Davies was top points scorer (1+3) against Nottingham Panthers at Sheffield Arena last Saturday – and the only scorer in the 1-5 defeat against them the following night.

He and the rest of the team will be hoping for maximum points this weekend.

The former Chicago Wolves man signed for Steelers despite lingering interest in Austria, where he played last year for EHC Linz.

"I could definitely have gone back to Austria, that was an option," he said.

But he wanted an English-first spoken language plus "I want to have a lot of fun I want to win a championship,” he added.

"Most importantly, it came down to the coach."

He admires Aaron Fox's offensive style, and the face pace of his teams.

Davies played against Fox's Zagreb team last year and they were offensively-natured, he added.

"I haven't won a championship since I was in junior, that is obviously really important.

"I think this team can do it. We just have to buy into the coach's systems, and just pay hockey and have fun."

Former Steeler Guillaume Desbiens says Davies plays with a chip on his shoulder and the forward puts some of that down to competing for an AHL spot when there was an NHL-strike, and plenty of competition for places.

"I was in and out of a line up in the AHL, it was an NHL lock-out year," said the forward.

"In order to make myself known I needed to play gritty, not just a straight-forward, offensive, razzle-dazzle type game. I had to play gritty...that's my style.

"Grittiness in a game actually gets me going."

Davies is now preparing for his first regular season game, against Coventry Blaze, on Saturday night.

The EIHL is a progressive league, every team can win on a single night, he feels.

"There are a lot of good players, the League is deeper and we have got to be ready from day one,” he said.

"This team (Sheffield) prepares well and everyone in that room will battle...it will be fun to watch" he predicted.