Roman Schmidt

June 2022- Schmidt is one of many right-handed defense prospects in the Tampa system. Even though he has good first passes, I question how his offense is translatable to the NHL. With no elite offensive tools, it’s tough to picture the 6-foot-6 defender on an elite NHL powerplay. He doesn’t have elite puck skills or speed, and he doesn’t play very physical, and you would like to see him play a little bit more in one of these two ways. Schmidt played this entire past year on the left side, while being right-handed, earning 33 points in 68 games with the Kitchener Rangers. It will be interesting to see if he takes a major step forward in his development this year. Caleb Kerney