Schmidt looks to bring winning culture to young Mammoth squad

Nate Schmidt is enjoying life after a renaissance season during the 2024-25 campaign.

The 6-foot left-shot defenceman had been considered a promising young defenceman early in his career when he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Washington Capitals in 2013 and then picked up by the Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion draft prior to the 2017-18 season.

He helped the Golden Knights reach the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season as well as playoff appearances in the team's first three years of existence.

During that period he had 21 goals and 97 points in 196 games with the Golden Knights while averaging 21:59 of ice time with a +52 rating.

Schmidt's early success helped him land a six-year, $35.7 million contract extension with the Golden Knights in October of 2018. However, in an effort to create cap space to improve the team through free agency, Schmidt was traded to the Vancouver Canucks two seasons later.

Schmidt's production dropped in Vancouver, recording five goals and 15 points in the shortened 56-game season in 2021 while averaging 20:06 of ice time with a minus-7 rating. He was traded less than a year later to the Winnipeg Jets where he played three seasons before eventually having the final season of his contract bought out in June of 2024.

Schmidt joined a Florida Panthers team last off-season that was coming off their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history and were looking to rebuild their defence after Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson left as unrestricted free agents.

He signed to a one-year, $800,000 deal with the hopes of resurrecting his career and did just that, recording five goals and 19 points in 80 games in the regular season while averaging 16:32 of ice time.

The 33-year-old took his game to another level in the playoffs, registering three goals and 12 points in 23 games while averaging 16:16 of ice time to help the team to its second of back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.

“I went into Florida and said I would play wherever, however and whenever, and had that kind of mentality,” Schmidt told Derek Van Diest of NHL.com on Thursday. “I think it was really a stroke of lightning for me, because I went in there not expecting anything. Whatever role you get you roll with, and I felt last year that that is something that really helped me a ton.

"When you start expecting things and thinking you deserve this, that or the other, then that’s when you can get resentful for not being on the power play or not doing certain things and not just enjoying it.”

Schmidt was able to parlay his one season with Florida into a new three-year, $10.5 million contract with the Utah Mammoth.

The Mammoth are a young team that was looking for veterans to help their young stars grow together and learn how to win on hockey's biggest stage. They are also a team that is eager to prove themselves after the franchise was relocated from Arizona prior to the last season.

Utah finished sixth in the Central Division with a 38-31-13 record last season, seven points behind the St. Louis Blues for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Schmidt sees parallels between the Mammoth's roster construction now and when the Panthers were growing into a Stanley Cup contender.

“This is actually a team and an organization that have been building for a long time,” Schmidt said. “It kind of, in a lot of ways, mimics Florida and how they went through the draft, had a bunch of guys grow up together, and then start to make noise later as they got on in their careers. And that’s how I see this team. That’s something that kind of excited me. You see that type of trajectory again and see how it worked.”

The St. Cloud, Minn., native wants to maintain the mentality he had in Florida that made him successful and hopes he can pass it on to the younger players on the Mammoth.

He also hopes that he can be another piece of a winning puzzle that will help the Mammoth reach heights they've dreamed of since moving to Utah.

“In the last couple of years, they’ve added guys like myself and a couple of other guys that have won before, and that type of mentality starts to roll over, in my opinion,” Schmidt said. “On the teams that I’ve been on, that’s the type of mentality they have. In my case, I just tasted this thing, and I can’t wait for another chance at it again. That’s what you’re going to get out of me, and that’s what I’m most excited to bring to this group.”