Sam Lee still had to wear a plastic cast on his right hand. It had only been five weeks since he broke it. Now he was back, facing Little Caesars, the top-ranked 15U AAA team in the country.
On his first shift back, he scored. Later in the game, he blocked a shot with that same right hand.
“You’re obviously a little worried about it, just going into contact,” Lee said. “But after blocking that shot, I was like, ‘All right, I’m fine.’”
The road to that moment in Detroit began at the Eastern Alliance Kickoff in September, just three games into the 2025 fall season, when Lee broke his hand playing for the Minuteman Flames. The injury put his central goal at risk — earning an invitation to the USA Hockey National Team Development Evaluation Camp in March.
The NTDP first came on Lee’s radar when the 2005-born group came together, which featured Massachusetts natives Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Will Vote. Seeing players from his area make the team allowed him to realize that’s what he wanted, too.
Lee, a Woburn, Mass. native, didn’t stop training despite the injury. He credits his trainer, Charlie Bando, co-owner of Bando Performance, with the success of his recovery. Lee and Bando continued their typical training regimen, working out privately four to five days a week.
“A lot of people think that even though someone’s hurt, they can’t train that limb, or they can’t train that area of the body,” Bando said. “It’s just completely untrue.”
Bando explained that Lee wanted to better himself during his recovery. Because of Lee’s mindset, they were able to push his limits. “From an adversity perspective, he looked it dead in the eye.”
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Freddy Meyer, a former NHL player who coaches at Rivers, has been around Lee and his family for almost a decade.
“He’s a kid that’s always got a smile on his face, no matter how hard the task is,” Meyer said. “I think that has really helped him keep getting better and keep improving.”
Lee’s drive to work on himself led to a third-place finish in scoring at Belmont Hill this winter as a 15-year-old freshman. In 31 games, Lee tallied 32 points and 15 goals.
He acknowledged that the transition from minor to prep hockey wasn’t easy, as he routinely went up against bigger, stronger and older players.
Lee’s head coach at Belmont Hill, Brian Phinney, said he “grew a lot through the year,” and credits that and Lee’s success to his willingness to be coached.
“He seeks out feedback, and that went a long way,” Phinney said. “There was tons of growth. Even when he made mistakes on the ice, it wasn’t something where it was debilitating.”
In February, Lee received an email officially inviting him to the NTDP evaluation camp in Plymouth, Mich. He was one of 45 players invited, all competing for a spot on the NTDP Under-17 team.
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“All season you have it in mind, but you strive to make that, and after getting that email, you’re so excited, but you’re ready to get to work,” Lee said.
Nerves were high on the first day of camp. Lee needed to feel the puck on his stick before he could settle in — and prep hockey had prepared him for the moment better than he expected. On his third shift of the first game, he picked up a primary assist.
“I might have a shot at this thing,” he thought to himself. “I had to attack it.”
Then Rod Braceful, general manager of the NTDP, invited Lee to his office. He had made the team, along with 22 others, part of less than one percent of his birth year to earn a spot. Lee was one of two New England natives on the squad.
“You dream about playing for that team, playing for your country,” Lee said. “You’re almost too shocked to speak, but you’re just overall extremely happy and excited.”
The moment meant more than just making a roster.
“USA Hockey is one of the strongest brotherhoods you can have,” Lee said. “Just making lifelong friends, and we’re representing our country. It’s such a great honor.”
Phinney wasn’t surprised. By the end of the prep season, he thought Lee had a “pretty good chance” to make the team.
Phinney has coached players who had made the NTDP before, including Griffin Luce and Johnny Beecher from his time as an assistant at Salisbury School and Teddy Stiga from his time at Belmont Hill. According to Phinney, Lee has similarities to those guys.
“They really love playing,” he said. “They’re responsible and competitive kids, but just the excitement about playing really stands out.”
Bando has trained professionals and Olympic medalists alongside players like Lee. The mindset, he said, is the same across all of them.
“If he sees something to gain a competitive edge on — he’s going to take it,” Bando said. “That’s what all of these athletes at an extremely high level do. They tap into a different mindset, they attack it head-on, and there’s really no looking back from there.”
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Lee’s still only 15, so it’s hard to predict how far he can go in the sport he lives and breathes, but Phinney said his humility can take him however far he wants.
“He comes in every day to prove it, and that goes a long way because it’s going to get tougher and you’re going to get challenged and face adversity,” he said. “I feel good about his ability to stay focused on the process. Whatever his ceiling is, I think he’s going to reach it.”
