This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Nate Schmidt
Utah Mammoth Defense
Undrafted, a Stanley Cup at 33, and a summer signing after the best playoff run of his life.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | WSH | 29 | 2 | 4 | 6 | +4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 4.9 | 18:42 |
| 2014-15 | WSH | 39 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2.5 | 13:53 |
| 2015-16 | WSH | 72 | 2 | 14 | 16 | +12 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 80 | 2.5 | 18:04 |
| 2016-17 | WSH | 60 | 3 | 14 | 17 | +22 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 5.0 | 15:29 |
| 2017-18 | VGK | 76 | 5 | 31 | 36 | +19 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 103 | 4.9 | 22:14 |
| 2018-19 | VGK | 61 | 9 | 21 | 30 | +22 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 112 | 8.0 | 21:57 |
| 2019-20 | VGK | 59 | 7 | 24 | 31 | +11 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 112 | 6.3 | 21:41 |
| 2020-21 | VAN | 54 | 5 | 10 | 15 | -7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 76 | 6.6 | 20:06 |
| 2021-22 | WPG | 77 | 4 | 28 | 32 | -4 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 117 | 3.4 | 20:13 |
| 2022-23 | WPG | 71 | 7 | 12 | 19 | +15 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 101 | 6.9 | 18:28 |
| 2023-24 | WPG | 63 | 2 | 12 | 14 | +10 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 75 | 2.7 | 16:49 |
| 2024-25 | FLA | 80 | 5 | 14 | 19 | +4 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 70 | 7.1 | 16:32 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 741 | 52 | 187 | 239 | +106 | 152 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 987 | 5.3 | 18:50 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
5 goals and 14 assists in 80 games for Florida — 19 points at 16:32 a night, plus-4, with 30 penalty minutes.
He was bought out by Winnipeg in the summer of 2024, signed a one-year contract in Florida for close to the minimum, played all 80 games on the third pair, and won a Stanley Cup.
The Finesse Game
70 attempts and 5 goals in 80 games. There is not much shot: 52 goals in 741 career games.
14 assists. The skating is the whole of it and it is high-end — he escapes a forecheck by turning away from it, he carries the puck through the neutral zone, and he has been doing that at NHL level for twelve seasons.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 197 and he is not a physical defenceman. He does not clear a crease and he does not finish checks.
30 penalty minutes in 80 games is a moderate rate. He defends with his feet and his stick, and on a third pairing behind a good structure it works.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, and he went to Minnesota and reached the NHL at 22 — 741 games and 239 points across five organisations, with a career plus-106.
He is 34 and Utah signed him in the summer after the Cup. On a blue line whose regulars are 27, 28 and 27, he is the veteran and he is not blocking anybody.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,099 minutes
- Expected goals
- 56.5%
- 95th pct
- Shot attempts
- 56.4%
- 94th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 43 for, 46 against. Expected: 43.9 and 33.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 46 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 72 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 with FLA · 1099 minutes at five-on-five
- Niko Mikkola24%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- FLA took 54.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 56.5% — 2.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,099 minutes at five-on-five — 75th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uvis Balinskis | 54.1% | 58.4% | 55.4% |
| Evan Rodrigues | 55.9% | 56.7% | 51.0% |
| Sam Bennett | 56.0% | 56.6% | 52.6% |
54.1% together, 58.4% for him apart and 55.4% for Balinskis apart. He was better away from Balinskis, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Balinskis.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
119 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 79% from beyond forty.