Goodbye Nate Schmidt, You ‘Total Tasmanian Devil Of Positive Energy’
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
After the news of Nate Schmidt’s trade, there was an outpouring of affection, sorrow and photos that included Schmidt’s signature smiling face with the goofy grin that was so authentic.
Vegas Golden Knights fans have spent the last 24 hours posting their thoughts about the former original VGKer, who was traded to the Vancouver Canucks Monday so that the franchise could free up money to sign star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to a seven-year, $61.6 million contract.
Even media members went to Twitter to say what a good guy Schmidt was. The 29-year-old defenseman from Minnesota, picked from the Washington Capitals during the 2017 expansion draft, was generous with his time answering sports reporters’ questions during his three seasons in Las Vegas. And he also answered them with thought and substance. I can vouch for that myself. Bear witness to this interview I had with Schmidt about business:
LVSportsBiz.com last night posted photos of Schmidt from his three seasons with the Golden Knights on the Vegas Knights Click fan page on Facebook. As of 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, 757 people reacted to the post with 108 comments.
I had my favorite comment. Fan Danny Mathis described Schmidt this way: “Total Tasmanian devil of positive energy.”
So true.
Fans can smell a phony player a mile away.
But every Schmidt interaction with a fan had a real connection. It’s why fans posted photos of Schmidt holding their babies and posing with their kids.
To this day, Schmidt said he was innocent of using any illegal substances when he was suspended 20 games for violating the NHL’s performance-enhancing drug use policy before the 2018-19 season. He lost his appeal. To show how much faith and belief the Knights had in Schmidt, they signed Schmidt to a six-year, $35.8 million extension during his suspension. The deal was worth $5.95 million per year. When it came to lopping off salary to sign Pietrangelo, that Schmidt salary looked too juicy to ignore.
Total Tasmanian devil of positive energy — Golden Knights fan Danny Mathis on Nate Schmidt
VGK General Manager Kelly McCrimmon used the ol’ “he-was-even-a-better-person-than-player” line with the media Monday evening.
But pro sports general managers are not paid to be sentimentalists.
They’re paid to assemble what they believe is the best roster of players on paper.
Then it’s up to coaches to glue those players together into a championship club.
Schmidt leaves Las Vegas knowing that he was a Pure Misfit from that magical VGK Season 1 team. It was not necessarily the league’s most talented bunch of players, but they certainly had the most Misfit Chemistry of any team in that 2017-18 NHL season that resulted in the VGK’s Miracle-on-Ice-like appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.
I remember that final player interview day after the Game 5 loss to the Washington Capitals in June 2018 when the Knights PR staff rolled out each player for final thoughts. Schmidt was still emotionally upset about losing the Stanley Cup to his former team. I remember Schmidt’s anguish, the words that stumbled out awkwardly but was laced with genuine tones about a miracle Misfit season that ended three wins away from a championship.
Season 2 started with Schmidt not playing the first 20 games because of the substance violation suspension and the Knights stumbled out of the gate with a very unMisfit-like record of 8-11-1 with Schmidt out of the lineup.
One year after the Oct. 1, 2017 mass shooting on the Strip that resulted in the loss of 60 lives, several Golden Knights players, including Schmidt, appeared at a blood donor site at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Oct. 1, 2018.
I had to end a video interview of VGK fan Zac Alexander because he got emotionally choked up about what it meant for Schmidt and other Misfits to help Las Vegas get through those upsetting and troubling weeks and months after the Oct. 1, 2017 gun-shooting massacre at a country music festival on the Strip.
In the end, there’s a number for everything from goals, assists, wins and scoring chances to giveaways, takeaways and mistakes on the ice. There’s a whole industry called, “Analytics.”
We won’t remember those numbers, though. What fans will remember will be that feeling inside their guts and inside their hearts when the name, “Nate Schmidt,” is mentioned around Las Vegas.
“Last night was hard,” Schmidt started his video interview today. He was speaking for much of Las Vegas.
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