Bio

Yan Stastny was born in Quebec City in 1982. The family he moved to the United States, more specifically New Jersey at age 7 and then to St. Louis, Missouri at age 10 when his father joined the St. Louis Blues and where the family would finally settle to call St-Louis home. St-Louis is where Yan flourished and grew in the sport of hockey, In 1996, Yan made his first STL select team as a member of the St-Louis Blues Pee-Wee select team for the renowned Quebec International PeeWee Hockey Tournament.

He was admitted at Chaminade High School where he played hockey for the school team for two years. He then transferred to Parkway Central High School due to the fact that Chaminade would not let him miss classes to play junior hockey. During his final years of high school, he played for the Junior B St. Louis Jr. Blues before moving up to the Junior A St. Louis Sting.

Following graduation, Yan played for the Omaha Lancers, a Junior A team in the United States Hockey League (USHL) during the 2000- 2001 season. He helped them win the Clark Cup playoff trophy and the Gold Cup National Championship over the Texas Tornado that year. Following his stint in Omaha, he enrolled at the University of Notre Dame for two years where he played for the Fighting Irish under coach David Poulin before being drafted into the NHL.

Stastny was drafted in the 8th round (259th overall) in the 2002 NHL entry draft by the Edmonton Oilers. After playing 51 games of the 2005–06 season with the American Hockey League (AHL)’s Iowa Stars, Yan made his NHL debut on March 1, 2006 with the Edmonton Oilers against the St. Louis Blues, the last team for which his father played. Eight days later, he was traded by the Oilers back to the Boston Bruins. On January 16, 2007, the Boston Bruins traded him to his hometown St. Louis Blues. It was a dream come true for Yan to represent the team and town he grew up in.

On March 3, 2010, the St. Louis Blues traded him to the Vancouver Canucks. He played for the AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, to conclude the 2009–10 season and to conclude his professional North American career. On June 29, 2010, Stastny joined CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League and started his next hockey chapter in Europe.

After a season with Mora IK in the HockeyAllsvenskan, Stastny returned to the German DEL, signing an initial try-out contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings on August 2, 2015. He later secured a one-year deal on August 31, 2015. He went on to play in Sweden and Austria for two more years before calling it a career and hanging up his skates.

Yan’s style can be described as a sound speedy centerman. He displayed leadership qualities throughout this career and worked incredibly hard on and off the ice.

He played for Team USA in the 2005 IIHF World Championships, making the Stastnys the first hockey family known to have represented four different countries in international play (his father played for Czechoslovakia, for Canada in the 1984 Canada Cup as a naturalized citizen, and for Slovakia after the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia). He went on to represent the United States two more times at the IIHF World Championships in 2006 and 2011.

Yan currently resides in Colorado with his wife Marguerite and their four children. They have twin girls, Mila & Reagan (3), Brooks (22 months) and Quinn (6months). Yan is currently working at a scout for the Las Vegas Golden Knights.