Canucks: 3 questions facing Nate Schmidt in 2021
The Vancouver Canucks are curious about what Nate Schmidt will bring to the team next season. Here are three of the biggest questions he’ll face in 2021.
Fans are eager to find out how defender Nate Schmidt will fit in with his new team, the Vancouver Canucks.
After going the distance against the Canucks in the 2020 NHL Playoffs as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights, Schmidt is feeling pretty giddy about joining such a young and exciting hockey team. He’s especially thrilled that he won’t be tasked with shutting down two of the more skilled players in the NHL anymore, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.
“I don’t have to go play against Quinn Hughes or Pettersson and these guys anymore, which is nice, to be on this side of things,” said Schmidt when he talked with Sportnet after the deal went down.
Schmidt is expected to be an excellent addition to the team. He’s a different player than the departed Chris Tanev, but even with both him and Troy Stecher out of the picture, management believes the team will have a better blueline next season. But with that one statement alone, comes a lot of different questions.
Who will be Schmidt’s defensive partner?
One of the biggest questions facing the acquisition of Schmidt is, who exactly will he be paired with on defence? Does Travis Green elect to partner up his two best defenders to make a super pairing of Hughes and Schmidt? Or would it make more sense to split up his two best puck-moving blueliners to give the Canucks a better overall transition game? Let’s examine, shall we?
Option A: Putting Schmidt to the right side of Hughes for 24+ minutes a night sounds like a very entertaining idea. Both players are solid defencemen with highly gifted offensive capabilities. The two being partnered together would be a match made in heaven and it would give the Canucks an offensive 1-2 punch from the back end that not even the best defensive teams could keep up with.
Option B: The second most likely spot on the roster for Schmidt would have to be slotted on the second pairing next to Alex Edler. As Edler (34) is set to enter his 15th season with the Canucks, he’s definitely on the back-nine of his NHL career, but Vancouver still relies on him to play big minutes against stiff competition. At times, that was a noticeable struggle for Edler last season, but with Schmidt on his side, maybe he can last another year.
It’ll be interesting to see what ends up happening with Schmidt’s position on the team. In my opinion, as intriguing as it is to want to pair Hughes and Schmidt together, I think it makes more sense for the Canucks to split them up.
With little experience on the team’s third pairing this year, Vancouver will rely on their top-four to play more minutes than they should. They’d be better off getting 45 minutes of ice time a night where at least one of their puck-moving defenders (Hughes, Schmidt) is on the ice.