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<\/p>\nTORONTO \u2014 The San Jose Sharks can thank Max Mahoney for Sam Dickinson.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Toronto native will play his first NHL game in his hometown on Thursday, when the Sharks visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n
But if not for Dickinson\u2019s childhood friend, the big defenseman might not even be playing hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear these stories, especially up here, \u2018I was on the ice at two.\u2019 Sam as a young kid \u2014 five, six \u2014 hockey didn\u2019t stick with him. He didn\u2019t like it,\u201d Steve Dickinson, Sam\u2019s father, told San Jose Hockey Now.<\/p>\n
So what did Dickinson like as a boy?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Steve Dickinson<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything that a five or six-year-old would be into,\u201d Sam Dickinson smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe liked dinosaurs. He liked space science fiction movies and Star Wars and stuff like that,\u201d Steve recalled.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe put him in everything as a kid. All my kids, you put them in soccer, you put them in T-ball, whatever. He\u2019d go. But he just, at those early ages, sports didn\u2019t seem to be the type of thing that he was going to take to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Dickinson thought that might be the end of an eight-year-old Sam Dickinson\u2019s hockey career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real last kick at the can was a friend of mine had a team that [Sam\u2019s] very good friend at the time was on,\u201d Steve said. \u201cHis friend was Max Mahoney. It was actually his dad, Shane, who called me one day, and I remember the start of the conversation. He\u2019s like, \u2018We need a back-up goalie who\u2019s never going to play, you interested?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I only wanted to play if I could be on all my friends\u2019 team, and the only way I could play on the team was to be a goalie. So I had to be a goalie for a year \u2014 back-up goalie, not a good one,\u201d Sam laughed.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Dickinson-Goalie-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Steve Dickinson<\/p>\n
But Sam realized something on the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust playing another year got me back into it, made me realize I really liked hockey and thought it was something I wanted to play,\u201d Sam said.<\/p>\n
Now, to find a position. It wasn\u2019t going to be goalie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you ask Sam the actual time, he may have got in for a minute or two the whole season,\u201d Steve laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Garbage Man\u201d<\/p>\n
So it turns out Sam Dickinson wasn\u2019t much of a forward either.<\/p>\n
But what he was, he was always bigger and faster and more athletic than his age group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used to have a play where Sam would just go stand in front of the net. They called him the Garbage Man. He used to just stand in front of the net. There\u2019s nothing anyone could do about it at that age,\u201d Steve said. \u201cAnd if a puck bounced to him, he\u2019d slap at it and hope it would find its way in the back of the net, which it didn\u2019t very often.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Dickinson was a grinder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a penalty kill where he\u2019d be out there killing, they\u2019d just [clear] the puck,\u201d Steve recalled, \u201cand Sam would beat the other team to the puck and then just freeze it on the boards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve was not a parent with illusions about his child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had nine forwards, and he was firmly planted in ninth,\u201d Steve laughed.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Dickinson-Garbage-Man-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Steve Dickinson<\/p>\n
But Sam still played, perhaps inspired in part by his older brother Jack, who could do things with the puck that Sam could only imagine at that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe played for me growing up, and he scored 100 goals one year in minor hockey. He was incredible. Jack just didn\u2019t love it as much as Sam did,\u201d Steve said. \u201cMe and [Mark Deciantis], we coached Jack, and he\u2019d do things in games, and Sam would be sitting behind the glass, and jokingly, we\u2019d bang back on the glass at Sam and go, \u2018You can\u2019t do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack and Sam remain close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Jack had a huge impact on Sam coming up and in this game,\u201d Steve Dickinson said. \u201cI think Sam took a lot of that, just watching how great a hockey player his older brother was, and knew there was always work to do and in a great way.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it took a new position for Sam Dickinson to shine as a hockey player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used to be a winger. I used to play center, and he used to be my winger, and I gave him like six breakaways a game and he never scored,\u201d 2024 No. 3 pick Beckett Sennecke said, \u201cand then they put him on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beckett Sennecke on longtime friend Sam Dickinson, who makes his Sharks\/NHL debut tonight:<\/p>\n
“He used to be a winger. I used to play center, and he used to be my winger, and I gave him like six breakaways a game and he never scored, and then they put him on defense.”#FlyTogether<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/pe8iYoIKtq<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Zach Cavanagh (@ZachCav) October 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve found your home\u201d<\/p>\n Once again, Dickinson\u2019s superior size and skating made a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only reason he was moved to defense in minor bantam was because that was the year hitting starts, and then they had a player that moved out, [so the coach] was like, well we\u2019ve got a big body here, we\u2019ll move him back,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n So remarkably, Dickinson was 14 when he made the full-time jump to defense. Four short years later, the San Jose Sharks would make him the No. 11 pick of the 2024 Draft.<\/p>\n Sam had tried defense for the first time a couple years before that.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember asking him, going home the first day, and I said, \u2018How do you like playing defense?\u2019\u201d Steve said. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018I like having the game in front of me.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018You\u2019ve found your home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just physical gifts that made Dickinson a first-round pick. Steve cited local coach Justin Donati, who had starred professionally in the ECHL and Norway in his playing days.<\/p>\n \u201cA great, great, great young mentor for Sam and Beckett. He took both of those players under his wing because they were ones who were willing to and wanted more,\u201d Steve said. \u201cIf you ask Sam about this, the single most important person that he came across on the hockey side, in his journey, is Justin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the first person who actually believed that I could [do] something with hockey. Meant a lot to me as my coach, really pushed me to actually play, and want to play, and want to be a hockey player,\u201d Sam said of Donati, who coached him from 12 to 16. \u201cProbably at the start, he believed in me more than I believed in myself. He\u2019s definitely got me to where I am, and I wouldn\u2019t even be close to here without him, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n To this day, Donati still watches Dickinson and Sennecke\u2019s NHL shifts regularly, and gives them feedback.<\/p>\n Hockey Parents<\/p>\n But in the end, it\u2019s about the hockey parents, who wake up before dawn to take their kids to the rink, work overtime to buy expensive equipment, and make sure to attend every game.<\/p>\n Steve credited his wife Megan for always being a ray of light for Sam, when he could be a bit of a coach.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were times when \u2014 hockey dads are so guilty of it \u2014 we\u2019d always be honest, if he had a bad game, or there was something that I\u2019d think needed to be discussed, we\u2019d discuss it,\u201d Steve said. \u201cIf I was like, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t like that, I didn\u2019t like this, or how was that,\u2019 she\u2019d step in and make sure he knew that everything was okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve added: \u201cShe\u2019s the No. 1 fan. She doesn\u2019t care whether he scores. She doesn\u2019t care what his plus-minus is, she doesn\u2019t care what his time on ice is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad, he\u2019s been my No. 1 fan since I started playing hockey. He\u2019d sacrifice going on vacations, my family [would] stick back with me and stay in freezing cold Toronto for a tournament, or be up at 6 AM to take me to a practice,\u201d Dickinson told SJHN in October, after he broke camp with the San Jose Sharks<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no sacrifice,\u201d Steve countered. \u201cSure, you didn\u2019t go [on vacation]. But when you see how hard he was willing [to work], how much he wanted to get better, you just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n A proud parent moment \ud83e\ude75@TaraSlone<\/a> catches up with Sam’s parents, Steve and Megan! https:\/\/t.co\/F04557WDQV<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qJqZvEffSG<\/a><\/p>\n