The Vegas Golden Knights have traded defenceman Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks. In return, the Golden Knights received a third-round pick in 2022. There were rumbling that the Golden Knights just signed Alex Pietrangelo and needed cap space to do it. Schmidt’s contract is worth $5.95 million through the 2024-25 season. The Vegas team was very aggressive in pursuing Pietrangelo and even brought him out to check out things in Vegas in the midst of a pandemic.
Vegas trades Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks for a 3rd round draft pick in 2022.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 13, 2020
Nate Schmidt Traded
Schmidt has been with the Vegas club for the last three seasons when he was selected away from the Washington Capitals in the expansion draft in 2017. He has really come into his own in Vegas. That is proven by his statistics. With Vegas he has 21 goals and 76 assists in 196 games. He has averaged about 22 minutes of playing time in his career lasting seven years thus far. His career possession numbers are 51.4 Corsi For and -1.1 Relative Corsi. He has played very well for the Vegas team and this trade was purely to get a top-level D-man like Pietrangelo. That opportunity doesn’t appear very often in the NHL.
The Vegas team rewarded Schmidt with a six-year $35.7 million contract in October of 2018. It was thought that he would be a mainstay on the Vegas blueline. Then, things changed. They always do. Surprises over free agency weekend have been multiple. In any case, Schmidt will increase his new team’s success rate and effectively be a leader on the blueline.
What This Means Going Forward
As the saying always goes, you need to give up something to get something, and in this case it shines true. The Golden Knights, while very satisfied with Schmidt’s level of play, landed a top-notch defenceman who can lead them to a Cup. You can’t really blame them. They now will have a blueline which will be envied by the entire league. Teaming up Pietrangelo with Shea Theodore must have the other general managers drooling with envy. In any case, Schmidt’s service will be utilized completely on his new team.
Vancouver gets a defenceman that can eat up minutes for them and they get them for a low price from a division rival.
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