Leeds Knights: Winning culture helps land new import D-man Matt Staudacher

For new import defenceman Matt Staudacher, that pressure does not represent a problem.

The 6ft 1in American welcomes the challenge of trying to help the Knights add to the haul of three league championships, a play-off title and a National Cup that has been won under head coach Ryan Aldridge.

The 25-year-old left-hander will arrive in Leeds towards the end of August on the back of an impressive spell in the ECHL with New York Rangers’ affiliate Bloomington Bison, playing their first-ever competitive season.

He started the 2024-25 campaign in Italy’s second tier with the Brixen-Bressanone Falcons before heading back to the US shortly before the turn of the year.

Both teams had their struggles, leaving Staudacher excited to be joining a competitive outfit in Leeds – and one where the expectations are high.

“Last year, being in Italy and then in Bloomington, the teams weren’t the most competitive,” explained Staudacher.

“As a competitor you want to win every game you play in. Obviously that can’t happen – no team is going to go undefeated – but that kind of mentality was important to me, to step into a culture and an organisation that has winning in its background and in its future.

“And that is something Ryan alluded to fairly quickly, about the recent success of Leeds and how they want to continue that.

“And that was a big reason why I ended up signing - because I want to win, at whatever team I’m at – and Ryan made that very clear that that is also important to Leeds.”

Aware of the success Leeds have enjoyed in recent years, Staudacher said he was happy to embrace the challenge of maintaining the winning habit in West Yorkshire.

“There’s an often-used quote that ‘pressure is a privilege’ and that’s something I completely agree with,” he added.

“I want to have the pressure of trying to be a top player on the team and helping everybody around me succeed.

“I want to be able to be put in big moments and capitalise on them and at the end of the day, that’s what you dream about when you’re young playing hockey – scoring that big goal, making that big play, just to help the team move forward, so I love the idea of pressure.”

Prior to turning pro, Staudacher spent five years playing college hockey, four at the University of Minnesota - where he studied business management - before a year at Northeastern University, gaining a masters degree in finance.

They proved to be the key years in his hockey development, seeing him play alongside a number of players who went on to be drafted to the NHL and, in the past couple of years, launch their careers in the world’s top professional league.

His final year at Minnesota failed to yield ice time – mainly because the quality of the roster saw seven D-men either drafted to or now playing the NHL in front of him – but his college years are something he cherishes.

“That was the coolest experience of my life,” said Staudacher on his four years at Minnesota.

“Being able to play with some of the best players in the world at that time and guys that are in the NHL now.

“There might be four or five playing in the NHL now - it was a loaded team.

“Obviously the coaching staff was great but development-wise, just being able to practice with those guys and also watch the defencemen I’m playing with as well as play defence against forwards who are such crafty, skilled playmakers and who just worked their butts off the whole time, was such an awesome experience.

“I’m forever indebted to that school and that state because of what they gave me.”