Nate Schmidt knew he needed a ‘reset.’ The Panthers have proven to be a good team for that

Nate Schmidt knew what he needed to do this offseason. He had a plan in place. He needed one with the way last season finished out.

Schmidt, an 11-year NHL veteran defenseman, was bought out of the final year of his contract with the Winnipeg Jets. The defenseman found himself on the open market. It was time for him to turn the page.

“For me,” Schmidt said, “it’s the idea that you hit the reset button on your whole career.”

What better place to do that than with the Florida Panthers, who have had a knack for revitalizing players’ careers ever since Bill Zito took over as general manager?

Schmidt was aware of Zito’s track record. He saw the likes of fellow defensemen Gustav Forsling, Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson break out while with the Panthers.

He will have his chance to do so after Florida signed him to a one-year, $800,000 deal this offseason.

“It’s something I definitely looked at and said, ‘You know what? They’ve done such a great job with players here,’” Schmidt said, “and it’s a tribute to the system and the players that have the room and how this culture has been built. ... You know it when you see it. You know what you have in your room. You know what drives your room, and that’s the type of environment that I wanted to associate myself with.”

Schmidt has a lengthy track record in the NHL. He has played in 661 career NHL games with stints with the Washington Capitals, Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg. He has also played in 76 postseason games, reaching the Stanley Cup Final with Vegas in 2018 and the Western Conference final in 2020.

But the Stanley Cup has eluded him. Schmidt now joins a team coming off its first championship and has the pieces and the mindset to go for a repeat.

“It sucks being so close,” Schmidt said. “You put so many things into it, being a conference finalist two other times as well, but what I love about the energy and about this group and myself is that you don’t see it in the room. It was something I was very interested to see when I first got down here — What the room was going to be like, how the guys are going to act. I’ve never seen a team win and what it’s be in the room the next year. I’ve been really impressed with how the guys have taken themselves and approached this year with the idea that ‘it was awesome and I want it again.’ It wasn’t, ‘That was awesome, peace. Enjoy myself, enjoy the rest of my career.’ That’s not the mentality I’ve seen so far. So, talking about what makes you so excited to join a team, that’s what makes you excited. Because there are times when you talk to other players and when you get there you had guys that haven’t done anything all summer that have been enjoying themselves. That’s not the way this group has been.”

Another factor for Schmidt wanting to join the Panthers was to reunite with coach Paul Maurice. The two were together in Winnipeg at the start of the 2021-22 season before Maurice resigned early in the season. Schmidt said his limited time in his first stint with Maurice made him feel “re-energized.”

“Just his style, how he treats players and understanding what you need to do for him to get the most out of you and your group,” Schmidt said. “It was a pretty quick decision on my part. Going through the free agency process, I had this place highlighted as somewhere I really wanted to go, and hopefully it would work out.”

As for Maurice’s perspective on Schmidt?

“The starting point, for me is that energy,” Maurice said. “Some of it you won’t see, because it’s in the room. He’s a really funny, outgoing, gregarious player. He’s a very fit man, he likes to work hard, he likes to get on the ice, and from a cultural point of view, that could be very, very good for us. And then he’s got some game to him. We play a different game here in Florida than we played in Winnipeg style wise because of players and I think he will fit here the same way we thought Niko Mikkola would fit very well with what we do. Those two have a different style of game, I’m not comparing them, but I think he can skate, he can swing in, he’s got a good stick. He’s involved in the game and he’ll get up the ice, so he will be an energy-adder for our team.”

The Panthers return four of their top defensemen in Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov. But the departures of Montour and Ekman-Larsson opens up two roster spots and a spot on each of Florida’s power play units. Maurice has used Schmidt and Adam Boqvist on the power play early in training camp, which appears to give them the inside track for roster spots on Opening Night. Uvis Balinskis and Tobias Bjornfot are the other main contenders to round out Florida’s defenseman group.

“You have to carve out a niche for yourself,” Schmidt said. “Any time you go to a new team and you get a chance to run on the power play and have a little chance to contribute into your team, you take your minutes when you can get them. If they’re gonna give you those minutes, you’ve gotta go and make sure that you put your best foot forward because you still have to reapply yourself and test yourself and reset your own bar for the coaching staff and other players. This team is one. There’s a lot of expectations for how you’re supposed to play and how you’re supposed to conduct yourself.”

Injury updates

▪ Center Anton Lundell is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He was originally scheduled to draw into the lineup on Saturday for Florida’s preseason home game against the Carolina Hurricanes but that is now unlikely, per Maurice.

▪ Forward Justin Sourdif, who was a contender for an Opening Night roster spot, is week-to-week with an upper-body injury after crashing into the boards during practice on Tuesday which resulted in him needing about a dozen stitches.