USHL: Colangelo turns challenge into gains for Steel

Sam Colangelo is among the USHL's top scorers this season. (Chicago Steel)

When Sam Colangelo wasn’t invited to USA Hockey’s Select 15 Player Development Camp in 2016, the forward from Stoneham, Mass., started thinking he wasn’t as good as he thought he was at playing the sport.

Turns out, all he needed was time to grow.

Taller and stronger, Colangelo was named to the Select 16 camp the following summer. One year later, he earned a spot in the Select 17 camp. The accolades didn’t stop there, though.

Now boasting a 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame, the 18-year-old’s most recent honor came just last month, when he was listed 33rd overall among North American skaters in National Hockey League Central Scouting’s midterm rankings for the 2020 NHL draft.