Schmidt right fit with Panthers 1st

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This article was published 20/11/2024 (305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

2 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Nate Schmidt was hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

The affable defenceman knew there had been some whispers about a potential contract buyout from the Winnipeg Jets and, with free agency just around the corner, Schmidt got a call from his agent that essentially had him standing at attention.

“You heard about it and this and that. You hear rumblings of it and your agent calls you and he says, ‘you never know what will happen, we have to be prepared for everything,’” Schmidt said during a conversation at the Florida Panthers rink.

“It happened at the last minute, right before free agency. It was such a (whirlwind).”

Ultimately, the Jets chose to buy out that final season of Schmidt’s contract on June 30, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Fortunately for Schmidt, his close friend and one-time defence partner Brenden Dillon had already got the lay of the land in terms of what the free agency market was looking like for defencemen. Although Schmidt and Dillon don’t play the same style, getting a feel for this high stakes game of musical chairs was helpful as free agency officially opened.

“(My agent) said you make a list of teams you would like and I’ll make a list of teams I think are a good fit and then we’ll match them up and see how it goes. Thankfully, a lot of the teams matched up,” said Schmidt.

“When you get a chance to go out and play and provide value wherever you can. You come here on the deal that you’re on and they just expect you to be what you are and that’s been a little bit freeing for me. It’s still a one-year contract and all of that, but it’s not like you have to come in and change what they’re doing. You can just jump on board and be part of the machine in here.”

Enduring a buyout can sometimes provide some additional motivation, but Schmidt actually provided the Jets steady minutes on the third pairing with Dylan Samberg last season.

Although Schmidt was occasionally a healthy scratch down the stretch, the buyout had more to do with salary cap considerations (with the US$5.95 million AAV he was set to make) rather than a subpar level of play.

July 1 came and went and Schmidt was among the group of veteran free agents that were still available, but two days later, he had officially inked a one-year deal worth US$800,000 to join the Panthers.

“I had never been through that process before. That was crazy,” said Schmidt.

“I can imagine that for some guys, it’s an absolute heyday, for those guys that are chasing some big deals. But there’s a lot going on with it. Here, there, everywhere. This is a place though that I’ve had (on my list). Anytime you can join a team that just won, there’s a lot to like.”

Schmidt was a healthy scratch for the opening game of the season, but he’s been in the lineup for each one since and feels the transition of going back to the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2016-17 is going smoothly.

“It’s new in the sense that you come into the Stanley Cup champions and they have a blueprint and a look and what it’s supposed to be every night. There’s nothing you can say or do because that works, so it’s jump on board,” said Schmidt.

“This is how we roll and this is how things are done around here. It actually makes your job a little easier. Sounds good. There’s no tweaks to it. You evolve your game into what you need to be for the Florida Panthers.”

While there is some familiarity with Panthers head coach Paul Maurice from their time in Winnipeg, Schmidt reminded a reporter that they were only together for a couple of months before Maurice decided to step away and resigned in early December of 2021.

“I didn’t have Paul for an extended period of time, so there are still some things that you’re learning about each other,” said Schmidt.

“It’s good in a lot of ways, there are still some surprises left for both sides. To at least have some familiarity with the coach and what he wants from you (helps).”

Schmidt is the latest veteran blue-liner who has joined the Panthers and seemed to receive a new lease on life — following fellow former Jet Dmitry Kulikov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who joined the Toronto Maple Leafs after winning the Stanley Cup last June.

“The defencemen here are asked to do a certain job and that’s it. There’s not a lot of one way or the other to it. It’s pretty cut and dried what they want out of us,” said Schmidt.

“Getting familiar with that system and getting into that type of role and understanding that’s how we play, that’s been really fun for me, to see how it works and weaves through each other. We have a little bit of fluidity on the back end and that makes it easy for a guy like me to come in and be part of it.”

When the Panthers lost Brandon Montour in unrestricted free agency to the Seattle Kraken, not only did they lose a minute-muncher that ran the power play, they lost one of their biggest personalities.

Enter Schmidt, whose upbeat attitude has allowed him to fit in seamlessly.

“A little bit of that personality. We knew that when Brandon Montour (left), he was a little bit of a chatterbox in the room and we were looking for a little bit of that back,” said Maurice.

“A new guy comes in, it takes him about a month to get everybody’s nicknames right and then it’s on. That’s what he brings. He’s enjoying playing here, his game for us, is improved. He wasn’t in the lineup every night in Winnipeg and we play differently. So it took him a little while to get over that transition in style of play, with the players that we have. We’re just different teams. He’s been really good for us. He’s rounded into what we hoped he would be.”

As for the hot start for the Jets, Schmidt is among those who is impressed to see them at the top of the NHL standings.

“Anytime you start the year with the fastest to 15 wins in history, it catches anybody by surprise. It’s a great team,” said Schmidt.

“I’ve been there and I believed it. I believed it in the summer and I still believe it now. It’s still a great team. They’ve got a lot of good players and they’ve got a world-class goaltender that can win you a lot of games. It’s still a really good recipe for how you can win in this league and they still have it.”

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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