There might be no one who has a wider spectrum of potential career paths in the entire class of the 2025 NHL Draft, than Cameron Schmidt. When it comes to the Vancouver Giants winger, he will either fulfil his potential and become some sort of very solid goal scorer at the NHL level, or just never make it there and potentially play very limited professional hockey overall.
Why, though? Well, unfortunately, Schmidt is 5-foot-7. While height is often overrated as an attribute to judge a player on, there is a limit to that and around Schmidt’s height it becomes a legitimate limiting factor. Since the 2010-11 season, there have been only 10 total players who have been listed at 5-foot-7 or below to play in an NHL game. Those are: Trey Fix-Waolansky, Andy Miele, Stephen Gionta, Chris Conner, David Deshairnais, Brett Stirling, Brian Gionta, Rocco Grimaldi, Joe Whitney, and Nathan Gerbe.
There certainly are some names we like and appreciate for what they did, but again, it’s just an overall attribute that you would prefer to be on the right side of. They are fighting an uphill battle from the start and NHL teams often don’t want to really commit to those players playing on future teams. Alex Debrincat dropped to the second round, Cole Caufield went later than expected despite dominating college hockey — and both of those players are taller than Schmidt.
But, let’s not discourage the player. If everything breaks right, Schmidt would be joining that group of Debrincat and Caufield as top-end wingers who could score a billion goals in all situations in the NHL.
Pre-draft rankings
No. 43 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
No. 16 by Elite Prospects
No. 30 by TSN (Bob McKenzie)
No. 36 by The Athletic (Scott Wheeler)
Bio
DOB: January 19, 2007
Birthplace: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Position: Right wing
Height: 5’7″
Weight: 157 lbs
Shoots: Right
Statistics
What’s there to like?
A whole damn lot. Schmidt is as electric a player in junior hockey can be. He is responsible for just about half of his team’s entire offensive production and has all the tools to back it up. A very solid skater that can burst up the ice with decent acceleration, is not afraid to be in on the forecheck and apply pressure despite his size, and possibly has the best shot in the entire draft class.
All of that skill led him to leading his own team in both goals and total points, and scoring the seventh-most goals in the entire WHL among all age groups. Even just looking at the players in the last 10 WHL seasons who have scored 40 or more goals in their draft years and you see the level of play that Schmidt was able to achieve this past season. Connor Bedard (obviously), Berkly Catton, Tij Iginla, Terik Parascak, Kailer Yamamoto, Seth Jarvis, Koehn Ziemmer, Carter Bear, and then Schmidt. That’s the entire list.
Outside of Ziemmer, whose production has actually declined, and Yamamoto, who is struggling to find a consistent spot in the NHL, these are some of the best prospects teams have or had in recent years. And Schmidt is right up there with them. He’s just electric.
Give Schmidt some space in the offensive zone, and he can pull something off.
While the peaks of his game are among the very best in this draft class, there still are some question marks that need to be answered. Schmidt falls into the same archetype category as the other diminutive scorers before him in previous drafts and now it is just about whether he can overcome the barriers to become the NHL player that he has the skill to be, or just fall down as a player with all the skill in the world but is more destined for a slower pace league. It’s a swing.
What’s not to like?
There are some areas of Schmidt’s overall profile that can be easily nitpicked. Enough has been said about his height, so let’s not repeat the whole thing once more in this section. But, scouts have noticed an ongoing trend about Schmidt that can be somewhat concerning when it comes to his projectability. His decision making when taking shots has not been the best. Because he has been such a volume shooter with the Giants, these decisions have been swept away but as Elite Prospects’ Cam Robinson points out in a scouting report from Schmidt’s March 15 game against the Victoria Royals, it’s a little frustrating to see all the offensive talent, but then some of his chances go to waste.
“Early in the 2nd period, while working the point on the PP, he took the cross line dish, walked downhill and sent a nice backhand cross onto the tape of the darting mate who received and finished it off. Later in that period, he pulled a puck off the wall and slung a backhand cross to the point where it was swung on net. Schmidt, heading toward the crease, battled it baseball style out of mid air from the hashmarks. Great hand eye and focus,” Robinson wrote. “Had a clear-cut break from his own blueline–exploded into the opening and was stopped on the five-hole attempt. I still feel that he overshoots and misses better options. At least three shot attempts were easily blocked in this one as he telegraphed his intention and had the defender block the lane, and he fired anyway. This is doubly frustrating because when he chooses to, his vision and playmaking are really impressive.”
All of that praising of scoring plays he made, but then just decided to go for his own shot while missing some opportunities he had to lay it off to his teammates. That can be ironed out, though. These types of miscues can be chalked up to just a junior player knowing that he is the primary source of his team’s offense and he is solely responsible to drive most of it if they want to have a chance to win.
How would he fit into the Flyers’ system?
Well, he would find a lot of similar company. It’s sort of an ongoing problem that the Flyers find themselves with a bevy of wingers who aren’t the most physically dominant. But, that’s when you look at the current outlook of the team. Seeing Bobby Brink here, Denver Barkey on his way, and then even somewhat shorter forwards like Noah Cates, might give you a reason to be concerned about adding Schmidt to the mix.
But, who even knows if Brink will still be on this team when Schmidt is 22 or 23 years old. Even Barkey is a whole two years ahead of Schmidt and if there’s a two-year gap of smaller, but ultra talented wingers coming down the pipeline until the end of time, it’s a surefire way to find some underappreciated talent in the draft and take advantage of it.
With the most recent top selections, the Flyers have been going for more stable workhorses that will certainly fill roles on competitive teams, and not so much of betting on the talent to override any other unfortunate attributes. Schmidt would easily be the Flyers prospect with the highest offensive upside right now. And if they add more prospects with higher ceilings in the earlier picks this June, that’s even better.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
Almost certainly. Schmidt might be a little too risky in the first round for NHL teams despite his skill probably deserving a top 30 selection, so we could see him easily dropping into the second round and it wouldn’t even be a Debrincat-esque surprise. With the Flyers having four of the first 16 selections in the second round, taking a big swing on Schmidt is an easy thing to do. Maybe more than any other team (if the Flyers still have all four second-rounders) we can pencil in Schmidt as one of the selections. It’s the big, massive swing that most fans have been asking for from this team.
What scouts are saying
“One week, I feel like Cameron Schmidt is a top 15 guy in this class, and the next week I feel like he’s barely a first round pick. Some games I’ve seen he’s electrifying and all over the ice, some others he’s getting absolutely run over by the opponent and is unable to gain any kind of advantage. He’s on the list of most exciting players available in the entire class though, and you can clearly tell that this is a feisty, competitive player, but the odds are stacked against him a little bit. He’s very, very small, taking up very little space on the ice and is very much defensively absent and ineffective in transition. He’s a fantastic puck carrier though with evasive skill and quick footwork to push players back, which is something he’ll absolutely need to do at higher levels. The weird part of my dataset on Schmidt is that his playmaking attempts outpace his dangerous shot attempts. Most often he’s shooting the puck from the perimeter, but that trend has improved since October. Part of me wonders what better surroundings would do for Schmidt as many of his playmaking attempts go unfinished, and he still is responsible for half of Vancouver’s offense with him on the ice. He’s a pure machine gun offensive player who is going to need good surroundings in order to get to his ceiling, and he’ll need patience and encouragement to get there as well, but if he does, he could be an electrifying offensive zone threat. Are we looking at the next Daniel Sprong? Perhaps, but I’m on the record as a Sprong Stan and in the right scenario, you can get some very good overall output from a player like that.”
–Will Scouch, scouching.ca
“Schmidt plays the game to attack, challenge and score, with an ability to threaten inside the offensive zone and off the rush, both pouncing and being opportunistic around the slot but also knifing past defenders on cuts or attacking into his heavy curl-and-drag wrister (he really settles it into his pocket and then uncorks it). He’s a worker who will get after it, jump on loose pucks, win races and then manufacture offense out of it in quick bursts”
–Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
“His blazing speed makes him ultra-dangerous on the rush for obvious reasons, but he also explodes laterally, which opens up space for himself in the offensive zone. For a smaller player, the power Schmidt has behind his wrist shot is impressive, and the quickness of his release is equally noteworthy. After multiple viewings of Schmidt, it’s clear that he’s most accurate when shooting high on goalies, with the ability to beat them without a screen consistently. Something encouraging about his game is the fearlessness he shows in the dirty areas of the ice, especially with the puck.”
–Kareem Elshafey, FC Hockey
Another interesting prospect has come and gone from our draft board, so now we need to add another one to the poll. Everyone, please welcome Kitchener Rangers blueliner Cameron Reid to the mix.
“”Reid is compact in stature, but plenty strong in the trenches. He doesn’t shy away from physical contact, but his most elite element is his skating ability. Reid has the agility and explosiveness to close on opponents defensively and spin off checks to launch the attack offensively.”
–Jason Bukala, Sportsnet